West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed as "a moral victory", the Supreme Court verdict directing no coercive action, including the arrest of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, can take place during the course of CBI investigations.
Addressing the media from the dharna site at Kolkata's Metro Channel, Banerjee said that she and her TMC party colleagues had great respect for the judiciary and the court verdict will boost the morale of the state's police officers.
She said, "Rajeev never stated that he will not cooperate (in the probe into the Sarada chit fund scam). He wanted to meet at a neutral place, but the CBI came to arrest him from his residence without any notice on Sunday."
Slamming the ruling BJP, the West Bengal Chief Minister alleged that the Centre was misusing agencies under it and interfering in opposition-ruled states.
The chief minister termed the CBI versus Kolkata Police row "a constitutional breakdown" and said there cannot be any other "big boss" in the country other than democracy.
"Only democracy is the big boss here, Banerjee said.
The CBI had on Monday filed a contempt plea in the Supreme Court against the chief secretary of West Bengal, the director general of police and the police commissioner for alleged wilful and deliberate violation of apex court orders.
The agency said the non-cooperation of Rajeev Kumar was brought to the notice of the West Bengal DGP. However, neither the DGP nor the police commissioner cooperated, it alleged.
The CBI is investigating the case under a "hostile environment and non-cooperation from the state of West Bengal and its agencies/departments", the petition said.
Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, has been serving as Kolkata's police commissioner since January 2016. He has reportedly not responded to summonses from the CBI in connection with its probes into the Rose Valley and Sarada ponzi scams.
He led the SIT investigation into the scams until 2014 when the agency took over following directions from the Supreme Court. The CBI was slated to question Kumar about documents that allegedly went missing.
When, Mamata said that she will take a decision on whether or not to continue her dharna after speaking with other opposition leaders.
She further added that she is not against the CBI, if the agency is not politically misused.
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