CBI vs Mamata: Supreme Court directs CBI to file affidavit on allegations against Rajeev Kumar

The Supreme Court today ordered the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit to substantiate the agency’s allegations of evidence tampering against Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar..The Court stated that it is not satisfied by the oral submissions made by the Attorney General and Solicitor General in this regard, and thus directed the allegations of evidence tampering to be put on record through an affidavit filed by the Director of the CBI..During the course of the hearing, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi quizzed Attorney General KK Venugopal regarding the actions of the West Bengal police officials, which, according to the CBI, constitute contempt. The Court asked the question on the limited scope of whether the actions of February 3 alone are alleged to be contemptuous..AG Venugopal and SG Tushar Mehta told the Court that some electronic records in the investigation of the Saradha chit fund scam were found to be tampered with. This, according to the Centre, also amounted to contempt of court..CJI Gogoi, however, pointed out that the evidence tampering, according to the Centre, took place in June 2018. He proceeded to ask the Centre why it approached the Court only in February 2019, after the events of February 3..In reply, it was stated that the documents in question were received by the CBI from the service providers only in November 2018. At this point, CJI Gogoi asked,.“If what you are saying is correct, don’t you think it is serious enough for you to take the Court in confidence? If it is true, this is subversion of the rule of law and you are coming to Court only after the incident of that evening. Today we are not satisfied.”.The Court thus ordered the Director of the CBI to file an affidavit disclosing all the correct and complete information regarding the allegations of evidence tampering. This affidavit is to be filed within a period of two weeks. Additional time thereafter was given for the alleged contemnors to file any reply..The Court will hear the matter next on March 26..The Court was moved on February 4 after a team of CBI officers was detained and subsequently released by the Kolkata Police on Sunday. The CBI team had sought to question Commissioner of Kolkata Police Rajeev Kumar, who was investigating the scam..The CBI sought to question Kumar without prior permission from the State government helmed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The State claimed that prior permission is needed to be sought since it had withdrawn its ‘general consent’ to the CBI to investigate any cases in the state in November 2018..Two applications were filed by the CBI before the Supreme Court – one seeking a direction to the State of West Bengal to cooperate in the probe pursuant to the Supreme Court’s orders passed in the Saradha Chit fund case, and another seeking contempt action against the State authorities..On a later date of hearing, Kumar was directed to co-operate with the CBI in its investigation. The Court had also held that no coercive steps could be taken against Kumar..Last week, Kumar and DGP of West Bengal, Virendra Gupta filed affidavits tendering an unconditional apology for any “inadvertent disobedience of the orders passed by this Court”.