Kolkata,18 September: In order to further strengthen its all out efforts to trace former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajive Kumar from his hideouts, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has constituted a 14 member Special Task Force comprising senior officials from the agency’s Delhi and Uttar Pradesh bureaus.
The Special team which has at least four SP (Superintendent of Police) level officers, arrived here last night to provide further momentum to the search operation of CBI for the former CP and after holding a marathon meeting with the CBI Deputy Director Pankaj Srivastava here last night four separate teams were set up.
Accordingly,these teams raided a number of possible hideouts in and around the city including Kumar’s official residence at Park Street in South Kolkata since this morning, but he was not found anywhere till this afternoon.
It may be recalled that CBI has decided to intensify its search for the city’s former top cop after they were informed by the Director General of West Bengal Police Birendra through an official letter yesterday that as per the three week long leave application of Kumar, he was supposed to stay in his official residence in the City during his leave period.
But despite repeated search by the CBI teams he was not found there even once generating more suspicion about Kumar’s intention to evade arrest following the withdrawal of his legal protection in this regard from the High Court last week.
More interestingly Kumar was also not traceable through his mobile phone track records, as both his phone and that of his personal security guard remained ‘switched off’ for the past several days, informed sources said adding it had made it more difficult for CBI to know Kumar’s whereabouts since Friday last.
Meanwhile, as directed by the District judge of Barasat City Cvil Court yesterday, a fresh bail petition was today filed at the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Alipore Court by the lawyers of Rajive Kumar where they appealed to get a chance to participate in the hearing in case a caveat in this regard is filed by CBI.
Now, it remains to be seen how far this cat and mouse game is likely to continue between Rajive Kumar and the CBI to unravel the truth behind the multi billion rupee Saradha Chit Fund scam of 2012.
