Saradha scam: CBI summons former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar for questioning on Saturday

-

Kolkata: The CBI has summoned former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to appear for questioning on Saturday in connection with its probe into the Saradha scam, officials said. The agency served notices to Kumar after the Calcutta High Court withdrew his protection from arrest on Friday.

File image of former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. PTI

File image of former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. PTI

A team of CBI officials reached his residence to serve the notice, the officials said. Kumar, who is currently the West Bengal CID additional director general, was part of a special investigation team set up by the West Bengal government to investigate the scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit fund cases.

The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore, promising higher rate of returns on their investments. In May, the Supreme Court declined to entertain his petition seeking extension of protection from arrest in the multi-crore Saradha scam case.

He was granted protection from arrest on 17 May by the apex court for seven days and he had filed a fresh petition seeking to restrain the CBI from taking any coercive action against him. However, a vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had said Kumar's plea was not "maintainable" as a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had already passed an order in the matter on 17 May and the IPS officer should not have filed a fresh writ petition.

The bench, also comprising justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant, said that Kumar can personally approach the Calcutta High Court or the trial court seeking relief in the case. But on Friday, the Calcutta High Court vacated its interim order granting the former police commissioner protection from arrest.

The court also rejected Kumar's prayer for quashing of a CBI notice that sought his appearance for questioning in the case. It refused to entertain his prayer that no coercive action be taken against him without the permission of this court.

It said that Kumar's allegation that he was targeted and singled out for questioning by the CBI cannot be accepted, since other officers superior to him in the SIT were questioned. Noting that Kumar has failed to substantiate that the CBI was summoning him for questioning to dent his reputation, the court observed that it should be the duty of every responsible officer to assist an investigation.



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/34DSKR3
Press Trust of India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

Aditya L1 Mission: Spacecraft is nearing its final phase, says ISRO chief

-
Aditya L1 spacecraft is nearing its final phase, and manoeuvres to enter the L1 point are expected to be completed by January 7, 2024, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath. “Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase,” the ISRO chief told PTI on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch. Aditya L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, considered closest to the Sun. He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft’s entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally.”Possibly by January 7th, the final manoeuvres will be done for entering into the L1 point,” Somanath added. Among other tasks, it will capture and tr
Read more