City sizzles as Met dept extends heatwave alert
After sizzling at the highest day temperatures today, citizens of south Bengal, including Kolkata could face harsher days with the probability of temperature going up in the next few days.
The Division Bench of Justice Sahidullah Munshi and Justice Subhasis Dasgupta of Calcutta High Court today granted anticipatory bail to former city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case. If Kumar was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case, he would have to be released immediately on bail by an appropriate court on two sureties of Rs 50,000 each, one of whose properties would have to be in the jurisdiction of Kolkata, it was held.
Observing that Kumar had cooperated with the central probe agency, which is investigating the case, the court held that it was not an appropriate case for custodial interrogation of the petitioner. It directed Kumar, who is currently the additional director general of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to cooperate with the investigating officers. It also directed Kumar to make himself available before the investigating officers in the case for questioning on a 48-hour prior notice by the CBI. On 21 September, a prearrest bail plea of the IPS officer was rejected by the Alipore District and Sessions Court.
The CBI has issued successive notices to Kumar since 27 May, asking him to appear before it for questioning as a witness in the Saradha chit fund scam. However, he did not appear before the CBI investigators and sought more time on every occasion, citing various reasons. The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments. Kumar was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government to investigate the scam, before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014.
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