Kolkata Police wanted information on our investigation plan: CBI officials

NEW DELHI: The Kolkata Police, which is locked in a bitter tussle with the CBI, wanted information on the "investigation plan" of the agency officials, who were detained for a few hours at a city police station, a senior CBI official claimed Monday.

Speaking to PTI, the CBI official said the Kolkata Police had also refused to acknowledge the request of the CBI seeking cooperation in carrying out its investigation at the residence of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Sunday.

The Kolkata Police officials kept pressurising the CBI team, which was forcefully taken to the Shakespeare Sarani police station, to reveal "the investigation plan", the official claimed.

"Due to deliberate, forceful, physical obstruction caused by the Kolkata police, the CBI could not complete the proceedings and had to return," the agency official said, requesting anonymity.

The agency has written thrice seeking the presence of Kumar, who was a member of the Special Investigation Team of the Kolkata Police probing the chit fund scam, the official said.

The first notice to the Kolkata police commissioner was sent on October 18, 2017, to appear for questioning next day but he cited law and order duties of the ensuing festive season.

The next notice was issued on October 23, 2017, but again he excused from the questioning.

The CBI had sent third notice on December 8, 2018, but he responded saying the queries can be sent to him and he will reply.

Not getting any "positive response" from him, a team of 11 CBI officials along with two independent witnesses and support staff had approached the residence of Kumar at 5.45 pm Sunday where they found the gate closed, another official said.

After that, some of the CBI officers went to the Shakespeare Sarani police station, where they reached at 6 pm to inform the local police about the visit and seeking cooperation for which they sought an acknowledgement, the official said.

But the officer concerned refused them any acknowledgement, the official said.

Meanwhile, the CBI Deputy SP Tathagat Vardan, who was outside the residence of the police commissioner, inquired from a police personnel guarding a mini door adjacent to the closed main gate, if Kumar was inside.

Upon inquiry, the police personnel took Vardan to a police vehicle on the road and asked him to get inside, the official said.

When Vardan told him that he cannot be forced like that, he was pushed inside the vehicle and restrained by the police personnel inside in such a way that he could not move, the official said.

Vardan was also taken to the police station where CBI officers had earlier gone to intimate.

Inspite of repeated requests to give acknowledgement, the local police refused to do so, the official said.

The team then called two of its Superintendent of Police, Partha Mukherjee of Economic Offences -I and Pramod Kumar Manjhi of Anti-Corruption Branch, Bhubaneswar, who was on a tour to Kolkata, to come for their aid.

Both the officers reached the police station and insisted that acknowledgement should be provided and police should help the CBI team to complete its investigation.

Two Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) of Kolkata Police, Muralidhar Sharma and Miraz Khalid, were also approached by the CBI team but they remained "non-cooperative", the official said.

The DCPs asked the CBI to wait for some time and assured that suitable information would be provided after a clearance was taken from superior officers, the official said.

The officers at the police station asked the CBI to "divulge plan of investigation" else meet dire consequences, the official claimed.

The ordeal finally got over when the CBI was asked to leave the police station.

They reached their Nizam Palace office in the city where they completed the "memorandum" proceedings at 11.55 pm, noting details of the developments of the evening.