CBI summons two Bengal police officers in Saradha case

Kolkata, May 28 (IANS) A day after former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar skipped the CBI summon in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam, the Central investigation agency on tuesday summoned two more police officers who worked under Kumar for questioning, a CBI official said.

"The CBI has today summoned two more officers -- Arnab Ghosh and Dilip Habra -- to appear in the agency's Kolkata Office on Wednesday," the official said.

Both Ghosh and Hazra worked under Kumar, when he was the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner and were part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that first probed the multi-crore rupee ponzi scam case before the CBI took over.

Ghosh, the former Malda district Superintendent of Police, had been summoned before, but failed to appear before the agency.

Earlier in the day, CBI had grilled Prabhakar Nath, the first investigation officer (IO) of the Saradha Chit Fund case.

Kumar, who is now posted as the Additional Director General (ADG) of West Bengal Police's CID department, failed to appear before the CBI on Monday and sent a letter seeking a week's time, stating that he was on leave.

The CBI on Sunday issued a lookout notice for Kumar and directed all the airports and immigration authorities to prevent him from leaving the country and intimate the agency about any such move.

It had also served notices on the former top cop at his residence and his office summoning him to be present at its Salt Lake office at 10.30 a.m. on Monday.

The Supreme Court had on May 17 withdrawn the protection from arrest granted to Kumar by its February 5 order. It, however, gave him seven days to approach a competent court for relief.

Last Monday, Kumar had moved the apex court seeking extension of the protection from arrest in view of the lawyers' strike in Kolkata, but the court had rejected it.

The CBI is seeking custodial interrogation of Kumar as he was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of West Bengal police that probed the Saradha scam initially.