By
Arun Srivastava
Why has the Commissioner of Kolkata
police Rajeev Kumar suddenly acquired the importance in the political
establishment of Delhi as well as Calcutta is really intriguing. Rajeev is supposed to be an intelligent and
no-nonsense person. But this is certainly not the reason that everybody should
be after him. What has been the reason that Mamata Banerjee, who after coming
to power in 2011 was reluctant to retain him, hit the Calcutta street on Sunday
to protect him from questioning by the CBI.
One thing ought to be mentioned that
Rajeev Kumar known for his impeccable investigating and electronic surveillance
skills was blue eyed boy of former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya.
No doubt his elevation during Mamata
rule has been really fascinating. In 2012 he was made the first Commissioner of
Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. When in 2013 the Saradha chit fund scam was
busted he became the head of the SIT. By May 2016, Kumar had earned her trust,
and was made Kolkata Police Commissioner. After the BJP and Congress accused
Kumar of tapping their phones, the Election Commission told the state
government to replace him. He was removed during the assembly polls, but later
reinstated.
While he was being identified as the
most trusted police officer, the state BJP leader, former number two in TMC,
Mukul Roy, who has been witness to his ascendance, started putting pressure on
the central BJP leadership to remove him along with five more officers from
West Bengal as with them in command the BJP will find it tough to win the Lok Sabha
elections from the state. Last September one clip which became viral revealed
that Roy had asked general secretary
Kailash Vijayvargiya to talk to BJP president Amit Shah and get CBI to
keep a watch on “four IPS officers” and “scare” them.
“Jo char IPS hain, unpe CBI ko thoda nazar
dalna hoga. Isme agar ek baar dhyan denge, toh yeh IPS log dar jayenge (CBI
should keep a watch on these four IPS officers. If we focus on this, these IPS
officers will get scared),” Roy ostensibly told Vijayvargiya. Incidentally some
IPS officers who were part of SIT formed to probe the Saradha chit fund case
have been on the CBI’s radar and were earlier also called for questioning.
Kumar, as the head of the team was also called for interrogation. But the CBI
alleges he did not respond its summons.
It goes to the credit of Kumar that
his team arrested Sharada boss Sudipta Sen and his partner in crime Debjani
Mukherjee from Jammu and Kashmir on April 18, 2013. It was during those years
his proximity to the political establishment was severely criticised by the
opposition parties. Nevertheless a CBI probe into the Sharada scam was ordered
by the Supreme Court in May 2014 on a petition by senior Congress leader Abdul
Mannan. The state government had decided to hand over the case to the CBI on
March 18, 2015. But before the CBI could lay its hands on the perpetrators,
Kumar arrested the first accused on March 26.
What happened on February 3 is nothing
but is the manifestation of the panic reaction of BJP. Working on the feedback
of Mukul Roy, the CBI was used to defuse Rajeev. The BJP was working on the
presumption that he has huge amount of discriminatory documents and evidences
which leads to the residence of Mamata and secondly laying hand on Kumar will
demoralise the entire police rank and file. They will lose the guts to check
the BJP and help TMC.
Though the BJP leaders refuted that
CBI had gone to Kumar’s residence to arrest him, some senior CBI officials
conceded that deployment of such a large number of CBI sleuths was primarily to
thwart any untoward incident once he is arrested. Kolkata was left in a state
of unprecedented crisis on Sunday, 3 February, when a group of 40 CBI officials
allegedly turned up outside the house of Kumar, in connection with the agency’s
probe into the Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scams, and were detained by the
local cops.
For Mamata it was a do or die
situation. She took advantage of the overzealous zeal of the CBI. No doubt they
are free to arrest anyone. But in this extraordinary situation, they should
have moved the court or informed the DGP of the state. But as they nursed an
ulterior intention they did not follow the correct line. Mamata knew that
allowing the CBI to interrogate Kumar in this fishy manner would demoralise the
police force and allow the BJP to have an upper hand. Any political party
aspiring to rule Bengal must have the police on its side. While BJP was working
on this thesis, Mamata was desperate to protect her forte.
Following the row, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee stepped in and declared a ‘Save the Constitution’ dharna, to
protest against what she called an attack from the BJP and also defended Kumar,
calling him the “best in the world”. On their part the BJP justified the CBI
action on the plea that Kumar “has not been cooperating with CBI in handing
over all the documents and a lot of evidence has been destroyed or caused to
disappear.”
The hurry of the BJP and the Modi
government to get Kumar at any cost could be gauged from the simple fact Home
ministry shot off a letter to West Bengal, asking the state government to
initiate disciplinary action against Kumar for “indiscipline and violation
of service rules.” The Home Minister accused him of sitting on dharna with
Mamata. The face-off between West Bengal and the Centre is set to snowball into
a major political issue, bringing back into focus the Centre-state relations
and rights, which have always been a debatable issue.
But on their part she and her comrade
in arms AP chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu emphatically denied that Kumar had
committed any impropriety and said being the Commissioner he was under legal
and executive obligation to be by the side of his boss, the chief minister. It
is worth mentioning that on February 2, just a day ahead of the crisis a News
TV ran a report quoting anonymous
sources that said Kumar was about to be arrested by the CBI and was absconding.
(IPA Service)
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