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The Supreme Court on Monday 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 evidence.
The apex court said it will hear on Tuesday the probe agency’s applications that alleged that an extraordinary situation has arisen in which top police officials of the West Bengal Police are sitting in 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 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 have to be placed before it by means of affidavit.
Mamata continues dharna
Our Kolkata Bureau reports: In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “Save the Constitution” sit-in protest against the Centre entered its second day today.
While all Opposition leaders – from Rahul Gandhi to Arvind Kejriwal – had expressed solidarity with her and had either tweeted their support or called her directly, none of them came to visit her or share the dais.
But an unrelenting Mamata said: “I am ready to give my life, but I will not compromise. I did not take to the streets when they touched TMC leaders. But I am angry when they tried to insult the chair of the Kolkata Police Commissioner.”
The protest, she reiterated, was not against “an agency”, but against the “Modi government’s atrocities and its repeated misuse of institutions for personal gains”.
Poornima Joshi reports from Delhi: Fielding five Cabinet Ministers, the BJP characterised Mamata and other Opposition leaders supporting h as a “coalition of the corrupt.”
Although none of the ministers indicated a any move towards imposing President’s rule in the State, Home Minister Rajnath Singh warned in the Lok Sabha of a “breakdown of Constitutional machinery”. He also rejected the Opposition’s charge of misusing the CBI for “political vendetta”.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led a high-level BJP delegation to the Election Commission, urging it to intervene in the West Bengal government’s resistance to peaceful campaigning by other parties for the Lok Sabha poll.
Throughout the day, three BJP ministers — Prakash Javdekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Jitendra Singh — held press conferences in the party headquarters to dub the Opposition parties’ support to Mamata as a “coalition of the corrupt”.
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