Jalandhar : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today grilled Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar for over eight hours today in Shillong to probe into the multi -crore chit fund scam.
Kumar’s questioning began at the agency’s offices in Shillong around 11 am, and went on until 7.30 pm. The CBI is yet to release details of the interrogation yet.
Supreme Court earlier this week had directed Kumar to appear before the CBI to cooperate into the probe of Saradha Chit -Fund scam.
Kumar’s interrogation was followed by a day after Kolkata Police raided two properties of a company it said was linked to Nageshwara Rao, former interim director of the CBI. The enforcement agency had raided the company offices at Dalhousie’s Clive Row and a building at Salt Lake’s CA-39.
The move is seen as a ‘revenge’ by the city police in response to an attempt made by CBI to search the house of City police chief Rajeev Kumar last Sunday.
According to sources, city police is trying to establish a connection of Angela Mercantile Pvt Ltd- which was raided recently with Rao’s wife Mannem Sandhya. The claim was refuted by Rao.
Police sources alleged that there have been a “series of transactions” between the company and Rao’s wife that are under scanner. The transactions under scanner includes - Rs 25 lakh taken as loan by Rao’s wife from the company in 2011-12, Rs 1.5 crore paid to the company in 2012-13 and Rs 14 lakh paid as salary to Rao’s daughter.
The police is also expected to interrogate Praveen Aggarwal, owner of AMPL later in the day.
The case took an ugly turn few days ago following a face off between Mamta Bannerjee led West Bengal government and Narendra Modi led government at the centre.
The CBI team that showed up at Kumar’s residence were detained by the city police after they alleged that Kumar had destroyed crucial evidence related to the chit fund scam.
Calling it a ‘political vendatta’, Banerjee sat on the dharna for three days and lifted it only after Supreme Court provided immunity to Kumar against arrest on condition that he would cooperate in the chit fund scam investigation.
Meanwhile, CBI has dispatched a team of 10 officers to Kolkata to help the local unit headed by joint director Pankaj Srivastava to probe chit fund scam cases in the state.