New Delhi: Almost two months after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court appealing the Calcutta High Court decision to grant former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar anticipatory bail in the Saradha chit fund case, a bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde told Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta on Friday that the CBI needs to convince the top court as to why Kumar's arrest was necessary.
The Supreme Court also issued a notice to Kumar, who is currently the Additional Director General of Police (CID) in West Bengal, in the case and said, "You have to convince us why his arrest is necessary, otherwise he is a high-ranking offier".
The court added that it has issued notice because of repeated acusations of him trying to abscond, but the probe agency would need to prove its case.
But the CBI has had no luck in the courts in West Bengal, as far as apprehending Kumar is concerned. Three separate courts in the state had rejected the central agency's application for a non-bailable warrant against Kumar, after the Calcutta High Court had lifted his arrest shield on September 13. While the CBI had constituted a team of more than 10 officials from across the country to locate him at the time, they were unable to trace him till the Calcutta High Court again granted Kumar anticipatory bail in the case on October 1.
Sources in the CBI had at the time said that October 1 order was a temporary setback for the agency. The arrest shield was granted to Kumar by a bench of Justices S Munshi and S Dasgupta, who had ruled that the CBI's probe was not at a stage where the ex-top cop's arrest was required, directing Kumar to appear before agency officially as and when called.
The court also ordered the CBI to give Kumar a 48-hour notice-period before calling him in to assist with the investigation and granted anticipatory bail on a bond of two sureties worth Rs 50,000
each. Kumar had told the court through his lawyers at the time that the CBI was "hounding me", despite being aware that he was on leave from September 1 and had said he would join the probe when he gets back.
The CBI had in September this year been unsuccessful in apprehending the senior IPS officer and called back its special team - which was assigned with the task of locating him - after two week of futile searches in and around Kolkata.
SG Mehta, however, claimed on Friday that Kumar had been absconding for quite a while and had allegedly suppressed evidence in the Saradha case, which was being probed by his team before the Apex court handed over the investigation to the CBI.