NEW DELHI, March 26 - The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed as �very very serious� the revelations made by CBI in its status report relating to the recent interrogation of the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it cannot �close its eyes� if some �very very serious facts� are disclosed to it and directed CBI to file an application seeking appropriate relief against Kumar, who had earlier headed the state SIT to probe the chit fund scam.
The bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, granted 10 days to the probe agency for filing the application. Kumar and others can respond to the plea seven days thereafter.
The top court refused to drop the contempt proceedings against the West Bengal DGP, the chief secretary and Kumar.
It was hearing the CBI�s contempt application against various senior officials of the West Bengal government on the ground of non-cooperation in its probe and alleged tampering of evidence including call data records (CDRs) of key accused and Saradha group CMD Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee.
The court, which had earlier directed CBI Director to file an affidavit giving details about the alleged contempt committed by West Bengal cops and others in the case, perused the reply of the CBI chief and the fresh status report, pertaining to quizzing of Kumar.
�We have gone through your (CBI�s) status report. There are something very very serious,� the bench said.
The bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing CBI, to file an appropriate application as it cannot pass any order on the prayers as they were part of the sealed cover report to which the other side has no access.
�File an application or an affidavit, if you want to press for your reliefs. We cannot act unilaterally and the other side has to be heard,� the bench said.
�We are not passing any order. File an application and give the other side an opportunity to reply,� the bench said.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for West Bengal officials, opposed the liberty being granted to CBI to file an application against Kumar.
�While considering the contempt matter, suppose some very very serious things come to our notice then, should we close our eyes to that,� the bench said while asking CBI to file the fresh plea.
At the outset, Venugopal referred to the reply of the CBI Director and alleged that the West Bengal police has not been cooperating with the probe, providing incomplete and tampered with details to the probe agency.
He said the CDRs, provided by the state police, of the key accused to the CBI were matched with those provided by the mobile service providers and various discrepancies were found in them. � PTI
