Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Friday filed an anticipatory bail application in the Alipore district and sessions court in connection with the Saradha chit fund case, PTI reported. This came a day after a city court said the Central Bureau of Investigation had complete right to arrest him as the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court had withdrawn his interim protection.

The Alipore district and session court is expected to hear the bail plea on Saturday, Kumar’s lawyer Gopal Haldar claimed. The CBI had approached the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Alipore on Thursday and sought an arrest warrant against Kumar.

The magistrate also gave the go-ahead to arrest Kumar, who is currently the additional director general of the Crime Investigation Department.

The Barasat district and sessions court in West Bengal had dismissed the former Kolkata police commissioner’s anticipatory bail plea in the case on Tuesday. The court said it had no jurisdiction in the case as it was registered at Alipore district court. Barasat court is in North 24 Parganas district while Alipore is in South 24 Parganas district.

The CBI has failed to locate Kumar since last week when the Calcutta High Court bench withdrew his interim protection from arrest. The court had also rejected the police officer’s plea to quash a CBI summons notice.

The case

Kumar is accused of tampering with crucial evidence in the Saradha chit fund case. He headed a Special Investigation Team set up by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to investigate the scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2014. The agency wanted to interrogate him as he reportedly gave evasive replies during questioning in Shillong in February.

The Saradha company ran several ponzi schemes in West Bengal, allegedly defrauding lakhs of people. Thousands of crores of rupees were lost after the scheme collapsed in 2013. Its promoter Sudipta Sen was arrested the same year.

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