The CBI on Wednesday allowed Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to return to Kolkata after questioning him for five consecutive days here in connection with chit fund scam cases, an official said.

A team of 12 senior CBI officers examined Kumar for his alleged role in tampering of evidences in the Rs 2,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam, which the agency is probing.Kumar was also questioned about the Rose Valley ponzi scam.

After examining him for over 30 hours since Saturday, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday afternoon allowed the senior IPS officer to return to Kolkata, the official told PTI.
On Wednesday, he had arrived at the CBI office around 9.30 am and he was let off around 12.30 pm, he said.

According to official sources, the Kolkata Police chief had written to the probe agency seeking a “break” as he is required to prepare a reply to the contempt petition filed by the CBI against him and two other senior officers in the Supreme Court.

Kumar had led the special investigation team formed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to probe the Saradha scam before the case was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court.

The CBI had moved the Supreme Court after its sleuths were thwarted by the Kolkata Police when they had gone to Kumar’s official residence in Kolkata to question him on February 3.

Banerjee had rushed to the spot and staged a three-day ‘Save the Constitution’ sit-in against the CBI’s move and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah of plotting a “coup”.

The central investigating agency had said its officials had wanted to question Kumar to plug the holes in the Saradha investigation case as he was supposed to be in possession of certain key documents as a member of the SIT.