Shown No ‘Mamata’: CBI Grills Kolkata Commissioner For 12 hours In Shillong Over Chit Fund Scam

Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kunal Ghosh were made to sit face-to-face and questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Shillong on Sunday (10 February) in connection with the Saradha chit fund and Rose Valley scams, Times of India has reported.

According to the report, Kumar’s marathon questioning, which is being done in Shillong as per Supreme Court’s instructions, began at 10.30am and ended after almost 12 hours.

For the initial period, Kumar and Ghosh were grilled by a 10-member CBI team, the report quoted officials as saying.

Earlier, on Saturday (9 February), the Kolkata commissioner was quizzed by the top investigative agency for around nine hours by three senior CBI officers for his alleged role in tampering of crucial evidence in the case.

Prior to the case being handed to CBI by the Supreme Court, Kumar was heading a special investigation team (SIT) formed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to investigate the Saradha scam.

Kumar had asked for the videography of his questioning session but was denied the same as it is done in cases of custodial interrogations, the report quoted officials in Delhi as saying.

Ghosh, who was arrested in 2013 in the Saradha ponzi scam and is out on bail since 2016, arrived at the CBI office a little while after 10am.

“Both are being questioned and were made to sit face to face in the later half of the day. Each of them were being questioned separately in the initial period,” an official privy to the investigation told PTI.