No arrest for Kolkata police chief, says India top court amid Mamata showdown

The chief of Kolkata police cannot be arrested but will have to turn in evidence of chit fund scams in West Bengal and cooperate with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 5 Feb 2019, 04:56 AM
Updated : 5 Feb 2019, 08:30 AM

India’s Supreme Court gave the order on Tuesday after the central government filed a petition following a showdown between Kolkata police and the CBI, reported the NDTV.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been staging a sit-in at the heart of Kolkata in defence of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, being seen as her pre-election standoff with Nerandra Modi’s government in New Delhi.

She has called the Supreme Court order a "victory of democracy".

CBI officers were detained by Kolkata police when they descended on Kumar’s residence on Sunday. The premier detective agency’s office in the city was also cordoned-off by several hundred police personnel.

An officer (C) of India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is detained by police after CBI officials attempted to raid the residence of Kolkata police commissioner, in Kolkata, India, February 3, 2019. Picture taken February 3, 2019. REUTERS

The CBI told the court that Rajeev Kumar's Special Investigative Team "shielded guilty companies" and there was "inaction, selective action and a nexus" between the police and the accused companies in the Saradha and Rose Valley scams.

The evidence handed over by the team "is not complete and it was doctored", it said.

The CBI wanted to question Kumar on key documents that allegedly went missing, but “were pushed into buses and kept for few hours," the court heard on Tuesday. The agency also said it is working under a hostile environment in West Bengal.

On Monday, the CBI told the court that Kumar is a "potential accused", alleging that the police chief had not responded to its summons over the past two years. He was also absent from a meeting of the Election Commission on poll preparations, giving rise to speculation that he was "absconding".

DRAMA ON METRO CHANNEL

Earlier on Tuesday, Mamata was seen continuing her sit-in to “save the constitution” for the third day.

She had come out in support of the police chief, calling the CBI action a “coup” by the central BJP government ahead of the elections. "There is total constitutional breakdown. It is my job to protect my officers."

"They (the BJP) cannot fight us politically. That's why they are resorting to all this... Mr (Ajit) Doval is doing whatever PM (Modi) wants him to do, he is the one giving all the instructions to CBI," she said.

Photo: Reuters

Mamata was seen angrily pacing, sitting and consulting with colleagues on a stage, built in the colours of the Indian flag, wearing her trademark white sari and a light shawl.

The stage area near Metro Channel is the same spot where she held the protest that enabled her campaign to end the 34-year Left rule in Bengal.

The 64-year-old is a veteran at long-haul protests, according to her party colleagues. "She has the stamina and she knows how to pace herself," a leader told the NDTV.

Her pacing furiously on the stage was the day's "morning walk", he said as Mamata is known to be particular about fitness and is believed to use the treadmill every day.

 

As tensions continued to simmer between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the West Bengal chief, opposition leaders have come out in support of the sit-in including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. But BJP leaders have lashed out at the West Bengal chief for being “over protective”.

“This is not a centre-state standoff. The constitutional mechanism in the state has collapsed. Police officers in the rank of DG, ADG and commissioners are sitting at a dharna (sit-in) in plainclothes,” said Union minister Prakash Javadekar.

“These are to protect the ones privy to information. The man who knows too much and the man who has all the secrets of chit fund scams. Mamata Banerjee didn’t go for a dharna when her party MPs were arrested,” he told the Times of India.

Mamata responded: “Earlier, the CBI arrested a number of our party leaders. But I hadn’t come out on the road. This time they disrespected the chair of the Kolkata Police chief by reaching his house on a Sunday evening without any warrant or document.”

“Rajeev Kumar is the leader of the police force. Even as Rajeev wanted me to stay back, I went to his house and decided to sit for the demonstration. I am fighting for the police force and for its dignity.”