'Mere Oral Claims Would Not Suffice':SC Orders CBI Director To File Affidavit In Contempt Case Against WB Police Commissioner

Not convinced to act on CBI's contempt plea against the West Bengal Chief Secretary, the DGP and erstwhile Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, the Supreme Court on Wednesday required the probe agency to file an affidavit furnishing substantive material to back its claims of tampering of evidence by the state police in the Saradha Chit Fund scam.

"So basically you are saying that the state police is in contempt of this court's order calling for cooperation on its part?", observed Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, asking the Attorney General to indicate a specific instance to corroborate this contention.

Elaborating on their apprehension of destruction of material evidence, AG K. K. Venugopal had advanced, "we had serious doubts as to the documentation handed over to us...see the case of Sudipto Sen who was the head of the chit fund. He was arrested in J & K. A laptop and four-five mobile phones that contained data were recovered from him. Without retaining any part of the data or sending it to the Forensic Science Laboratory to identify and transplant it, the phone was handed back...this was a very serious thing...the call data records were shared with us but were not complete. We found discrepancies in the number of calls, which were drastically less. The details of from whom to whom the calls were made were also deleted...there were four other incidents..."

In the light of the face-off between the CBI officials and the local police in Kolkata on February 1, it was submitted that the atmosphere in the state is not conducive for investigation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also contended that the portions of the Call Data Records (CDR) destroyed were believed to pertain to certain important persons.

"Something as grave as tampering with the CDR happened in June, 2018 but it is being brought to our notice only now? After a row? Why couldn't you take the court confidence in all this while?", inquired the Chief Justice.

If it is correct that the SIT (set up at the outset by the state government to investigate the scam; of which Kumar was a member) has indulged in such an act, it is a serious subversion of the law, the bench, also comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna observed.

However, noting that mere oral claims would not suffice, the court directed the CBI Director to file an affidavit revealing the complete picture within two weeks.