Calcutta HC grants anticipatory bail to Rajeev Kumar in Saradha chit fund case

Kolkata: In a setback for CBI, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case. Kumar is accused of destroying evidence related to the Ponzi scheme when he was heading the probe.

The court said that this was not an appropriate case for custodial interrogation and Kumar must be given a 48 hour-notice before he is summoned by the probe agency for interrogation.

A bench comprising justices S Munshi and S Dasgupta said that if Kumar is arrested in connection with the case, he will have to be released on bail by an appropriate court on two sureties of Rs 50,000 each. Kumar does not have the court's permission to leave Kolkata.

Previously, the CBI had given multiple notices to the 1989-batch officer to appear before it for questioning as a witness in the multi-crore chit fund scam. He, however, did not appear before the CBI and sought more time on every occasion.

The Saradha scam was a major financial fraud which lured lakhs of investors to deposit money in its schemes with glossy brochures and the promise of abnormally high returns.