Saradha chit fund scam: Ex-Kolkata police chief Rajeev skips CBI summons, sends letter seeking more time

Kolkata: Former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who is under the CBI scanner for his shoddy probe into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam, skipped a meeting with the central probe agency officials on Monday and instead sent a letter seeking more time.

According to reports, Kumar wrote a letter to the CBI in which he sought more time to appear before its officials despite being earlier summoned by the agency for questioning in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam.

A CID official visited the CBI office in Salt Lake and submitted the letter, in which Kumar said he is on a three-day leave and, therefore, unable to attend the summon.

News agency PTI quoted CBI sources as saying that the agency officials were at the Barasat court to prevent Kumar from taking any legal step to stop the agency from interrogating him.

The CBI had on Sunday summoned the IPS officer to the agency's Salt Lake office on Monday after a team failed to meet him at his residence in connection with the Saradha probe.

Interestingly, Kumar and several other top-ranking officers were reinstated by the West Bengal government after the Model Code of Conduct ceased to exist on Sunday night.

On Saturday, the CBI had also issued a lookout notice against Kumar to prevent him from leaving the country. 

The agency wants custodial interrogation of Kumar in connection with the chit fund scam as he was heading the police's special investigation team to probe the case before the CBI took over.

The ponzi scheme scam was over Rs 2,500 crore by the Saradha group of companies, which had duped lakhs of customers promising higher rates of returns on their investment, the CBI had said.

(With PTI inputs)