Now, Bengal cops summon top CBI officer for fraud

THE ASIAN AGE. | RAJIB CHOWDHURI

Published : Feb 5, 2019, 2:16 am IST

Updated : Feb 5, 2019, 2:16 am IST

Posted as the joint director, Mr Srivastava is the top officer of the Central agency’s Kolkata jurisdiction.

Kolkata: A day after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team’s failed attempt to question Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar at his South Kolkata residence in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam, a city police team knocked CBI joint director (Kolkata Zone) Pankaj Srivastava’s office and served him summons for his questionning in an old case in what turned out to be a fresh twist in the battle between the organisations.

Posted as the joint director, Mr Srivastava is the top officer of the Central agency’s Kolkata jurisdiction. On Monday afternoon, a team of three cops of the Bhowanipore police station visited Mr Srivastava’s office at the 16th floor of the Nizam Palace on AJC Bose Road in South Kolkata. It delivered the notice under section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code to him, according to sources.

Sources revealed that Mr Srivastava, a 1992-batch IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been asked to appear at the Bhowanipore police station as an “witness” for the recording of his statement in an old case of cheating of around Rs 45 lakhs. The case, which was registered at the Bhowanipore police station, is related to the escape of an accused from the CBI custody in Howrah.

On the summons against him, Mr Srivastava said, “I have received the notice. All steps including legal ones are being expolored.” He later flew to meet the top brass of the CBI in New Delhi. CBI sources indicated that the notice to him appeared to be a counter-strategy to its team’s attempt to grill Mr Kumar. The timing of the summons to the CBI joint director also assumes significance as he had complained how the CBI team, despite being armed with necessary documents, was not only barred from entering Mr Kumar’s residence in south Kolkata but also physically abused by the police personnel.

“We went there to examine him. We would have picked him up had he not cooperated with us,” he said on Sunday night. This was however not the first time when Mr Srivastava became the target. Soon after the CBI team’s visit to Mr Kumar’s residence on Sunday evening, separate police teams rushed to Mr Srivastava’s residence.