Mamata vs CBI: WB governor submits report to home ministry; WB govt moves HC, SC to hear CBI plea on Tuesday

West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi has submitted a report to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the situation that unfolded in the city after a CBI team was allegedly obstructed by the police from questioning Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha scam, Raj Bhavan sources said on Monday.

The contents of the report were, however, not immediately known.

"The governor has submitted his report to the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs). Today, in the morning, he spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh," said sources.

The report was prepared by combining the report of the Special Investigation Branch and the reports submitted to the governor by the state chief secretary and the home secretary late Sunday night, the sources said.

The Supreme Court has also agreed to give an urgent hearing to CBI's plea alleging destruction of electronic evidence related to the Saradha chit fund scam case by the Kolkata Police commissioner and said it will come down heavily on him if he "even remotely" tries to destroy the evidence.

The apex court said it will hear on Tuesday probe agency's applications which alleged that an extraordinary situation has arisen in which the top police officials of the West Bengal Police are sitting on a dharna along with a political party in Kolkata. The applications accusing Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar of destroying evidence related to the case and indulging in contempt of court were mentioned by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjeev Khanna.

The bench declined the SG's plea to hear the two applications on Monday in the post-lunch session.

It said during the interregnum it will be open for the SG or any other party to lay before the court any material or evidence to show that any West Bengal authority or police official is planning or trying to destroy evidence related to the case.

Taking strong note of Mehta's submission, the bench said "if the police commissioner is even remotely trying to destroy evidence, we will come down so heavily on him that he will regret".

The top court said all material or evidence and additional documents has to be placed before it by means of affidavit.

Union Minister Babul Supriyo demanded the imposition of President's rule in West Bengal as he slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of aligning with those indulging in corruption.

The MP from Asansol in West Bengal also alleged that Banerjee was doing a "drama" and creating a constitutional crisis to shield her "corrupt and tainted accomplices".

"President's Rule should be imposed on West Bengal to control this 'Rogue' #TMchhi Govt under a corrupt CM Mamata Banerjee. This is a constitutional crisis 'created' by Mamata to shield her corrupt & tainted accomplices (sic)," Supriyo said in a tweet.

Supriyo, the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, said it was "shameful that the opposition raises a hue and cry forgetting that this is about a police officer who is accused of destroying and tampering evidence connected to a scam where almost (₹) 35,000 crore belonging to the rural poor of WB, has been looted".

He alleged that leaders of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TNC) were involved in the scam.

The TMC has rejected the allegations, maintaining that its leaders were being targeted due to political vendetta.

In an unprecedented development, a number of CBI officers, who had gone to question Rajeev Kumar in connection with chit fund scam cases, were bundled into police jeeps, whisked to a police station and briefly detained on Sunday.

Hours after the incident, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee began a sit-in right in front of the Metro Cinema to protest "insults" she faced at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and claimed the CBI knocked on the doors of Kumar without a search warrant.

Tripathi had last night summoned the state chief secretary and state director general of police and asked them to take immediate action to resolve the situation.

Rajnath Singh had called up the governor to know the facts of the "unfortunate and unprecedented situation of CBI officers being manhandled, detained, intimidated and obstructed", the officials said.

The home ministry on Sunday evening received information that CBI officers in Kolkata had experienced "intimidation and threat to personal safety in course of investigation into the Saradha scam being conducted under the directions of the Supreme Court", they said.

The ministry has deployed central forces at the CBI office and residential premises of the probe agency officials in the state and it is now "closely monitoring the situation", they said.

According to the CBI, IPS officer Rajeev Kumar, who led a Special Investigation Team of the West Bengal Police probing the ponzi scams, needs to be questioned regarding missing documents and files but he has not responded to notices to appear before the agency.

Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre, did not even attend a meeting with Election Commission officials who had gone to Kolkata to review election preparedness.