CP on road to become second one to face CBI

Kolkata: With the Supreme Court’s direction on Tuesday, senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar has become the second Kolkata police commissioner who is going to face the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questionning in a case. Before him, former IPS officer Prasun Mukherjee was grilled by the CBI more than eleven years ago.

Mr Mukherjee, who later retired as the director general of the Bureau of Police Research and Development under the home ministry, was questioned by the CBI for his controversial role as the city police chief in the mysterious death of graphic designer Rizwanur Rahaman within few months of his marriage with industrialist Ashok Todi’s daughter Priyanka on August 18, 2007.

A resident of Karaya, Rizwanur, whose elder brother Rukbanur Rahaman is now a Trinamul Congress MLA, was found dead with multiple injuries beside the railway tracks in Patipukur on September 21. Stung by a massive outcry across the city, the then ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front government had removed Mr Mukherjee from the post of city top cop, which is equivalent to additional director general (ADG), alongwith his two junior IPS officers on October 17, 2007.

In sharp contrast to the present political scenerio neither Mr Mukherjee nor the Communist government however then tried to avoid the CBI  over the questionning session after the Calcutta High Court handed over the case to the central agency for a probe from the criminal investigation department after a legal battle.

There was no tussle between the city police and the CBI. On November 6, 2007, a two-member CBI team — deputy inspector general Satish Golcha and superintendent of police Zaki Ahmed — questionned Mr Mukherjee at his office and recorded his statement over 45 minutes. Both the IPS officers were authorised for Mr Mukherjee’s questionning by then CBI joint director Arun Kumar who led the probe.