Mamata Banerjee Appoints Trusted Aide Rajeev Kumar As West Bengal Police Chief

Kumar, currently the Principal Secretary in the Department of Information Technology & Electronics, will succeed Manoj Malviya, who retired on Wednesday.

Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, will hold the charge of Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG &IGP) until further orders, the West Bengal government said in a notification.

Kumar was the first IPS officer to helm the important Department of IT & Electronics. “He is among the most trusted aides of the Chief Minister,” a bureaucrat from Kolkata said.

Kumar attracted controversies in connection with the Saradha chit-fund scam case and Rose Valley ponzi scheme case – both probed by the CBI. He was alleged to have suppressed evidence in both the cases.

The CBI wanted his custodial interrogation in connection with the cases but Kumar was granted bail by the Calcutta High Court.

In 2019, in a bid to locate him, the CBI even attempted to raid his residence for alleged non-cooperation with the investigators. They were stopped by Kolkata police officials. Later, the chief minister sat on a dharna to protest the CBI move.

Kumar was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the West Bengal government to probe the alleged Saradha scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit-fund cases.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court prevented the CBI from taking coercive actions against Kumar and directed him to cooperate with the agency for questioning at a "neutral place". Subsequently, he was questioned by the agency over five days at the CBI office in Shillong.