The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to ex-Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on a CBI petition seeking his arrest and custodial cross-examination in Saradha scam.

At today’s hearing, a bench headed by CJI SA Bobde told Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to convince the bench as to why Kumar’s arrest was necessary.

Mehta appearing for CBI replied that the premier investigating agency has procured evidence to ascertain that he had either purged crucial proofs linked to the scam or destroyed the evidence to protect somebody.

Saradha scam, in which lakhs of people were hoodwinked on the fake promise of higher returns was being investigated by SIT which included Kumar. Later on, the Supreme Court transferred the probe into the scam to the CBI in 2014 along with other chit fund cases.

In April, the CBI had told the apex court that Kumar’s custodial interrogation was necessary as he was not cooperating in the probe and was “evasive” and “arrogant” in answering the queries put to him during questioning.

—India Legal Bureau