Not just Rajeev Kumar, 3 more top IAS and IPS officers close to Mamata are being probed
Governance

Not just Rajeev Kumar, 3 more top IAS and IPS officers close to Mamata are being probed

While IAS officer Atri Bhattacharya was questioned last week in Saradha scam, also under the radar are retired IPS officer Surajit Kar Purakayastha & Principal Secretary to CM Gautam Sanyal.

   

PM Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Rajeev Kumar, the former Kolkata Police chief, is not the only officer from West Bengal who is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the chit fund scam cases. Also on the CBI list are a top retired IPS officer — Surajit Kar Purkayastha — and a senior IAS officer — Atri Bhattacharya.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), meanwhile, is investigating another officer — Principal Secretary to the chief minister Gautam Sanyal — in connection with the disinvestment of a state government company, ThePrint has learnt.

All four civil servants are known to be part of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s inner circle.

The CBI last week questioned Bhattacharya, West Bengal’s Tourism Secretary, in connection with the Saradha scam. And while Purkayastha — the State Security Advisor (state equivalent to national security adviser) — is being investigated in connection with ponzi scams, including the Rs 4,000 crore Saradha swindle, Sanyal — a Cabinet Secretariat Service (CSS) retiree — is under the lens for the controversial 2017 divestment of the Banerjee government’s stake in Metro Dairy, which was India’s first public-private partnership project in the dairy sector.


Also read: 5 years after CBI took over Bengal chit fund probes, it is yet to close a single case


The ‘de facto home minister’

Purkayastha has served as Mamata’s security adviser since May 2018, after a career spanning plum posts such as Kolkata police commissioner, and director general of the CID as well as West Bengal Police. 

A senior CBI official told ThePrint that he is being probed for the alleged disappearance of a file in connection with ponzi cases

“He has already been examined by the ED. We might examine him again,” the source said. “We are working on the process. We have information that a file was sent to him by a senior IPS officer regarding chit fund scam complaints. He was DGP then. The file appears to have gone missing,” the source added.

“We have been asking for the file for long, but we are yet to receive any document as of now. We also need to understand what the DGP’s comment on the file was.”  

Purkayastha is seen as a loyal and trusted hand of the chief minister. As state security adviser, he wields sweeping powers and authority in matters relating to “security management” in West Bengal.

Apart from acting as the principal security coordinator for the chief minister, he is responsible for sharing intelligence inputs from law-enforcement agencies. He reports directly to the chief minister. According to sources, his position makes him the “de facto home minister” of the state. 

The Metro Dairy case & Sanyal link

The Metro Dairy has been a wholly private venture since the state government, in August 2017, sold its 47 per cent stake to partner Keventer Agro Ltd — the sole bidder — for Rs 85.5 crore. Keventer Agro already owned the other 53 per cent.

The ED started a preliminary inquiry into the sale on the basis of complaints and a PIL filed in the Calcutta High Court by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has accused the government of undervaluing the company. The ED is also looking into the possibility of money laundering as Keventer allegedly raised funds from a Singapore-based private equity player immediately after the conclusion of the deal.

The final call on the privatisation was taken at a cabinet meeting headed by Banerjee. Though under the scanner, Sanyal is yet to be summoned by any agency. 

“We are still working on details and verifying documents. We might need to examine some senior bureaucrats, including the principal secretary to chief minister in this regard,” said an official of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). “The probe is on,” he added. 

Sanyal, who retired from the CSS in 2011, served as secretary to the chief minister till June 2015, after which he was elevated as principal secretary. 

ThePrint has reached out to Sanyal for a comment. This report will be updated once he responds.

Rajeev Kumar & Atri Bhattacharya

Both IPS officer Rajeev Kumar and IAS officer Atri Bhattacharya are under investigation in connection with the string of ponzi scams unearthed in the eastern states a few years ago.

Believed to be one of the IAS officers closest to Mamata, Bhattacharya was appointed home secretary in June 2017, superseding more than a dozen senior IAS officers. 

He served as home secretary until May this year, when he was relieved of duties by the Election Commission for allegedly seeking to interfere in security deployment during the Lok Sabha polls. 

Polling in West Bengal this year was marred by violence between cadres of Mamata’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

Banerjee did not reinstate Bhattacharya as home secretary after the election. 

The probe against Kumar, meanwhile, became a matter of national headlines when the CBI arrived at his residence for interrogation this February and triggered a standoff that united the opposition in criticism of the Modi government’s alleged “misuse” of central agencies to harass rivals (an allegation that has dogged governments of all stripes).

Kumar, who currently serves as additional director general (ADG) of CID, is facing a CBI investigation in the Saradha scam and the Rs 17,000-crore Rose Valley scam cases. 

Both Saradha and Rose Valley are companies accused of ponzi swindles where thousands of investors were duped of crores on the promise of greater returns. 

Kumar, who headed the special investigation team formed to probe the Saradha ponzi scam, is accused of tampering with and withholding key evidence. 

Kumar was removed as CID ADG by the Election Commission — by the same order as Bhattacharya — for allegedly “exceeding his brief” during the Lok Sabha polls, but brought back by Mamata once the model code ended.

Both Purkayastha and Bhattacharya did not reply to texts sent to them seeking their comments. This report will be updated if they respond.

‘We are cooperating’

Asked about the investigation against the four officers, a senior official of the West Bengal government said “all bureaucrats… called for examination… are cooperating with the respective agencies”. 

“Earlier, some of our senior officers of ADG rank also appeared before one of these agencies,” the official said. “Our principal secretary of tourism and former home secretary also appeared before the CBI Thursday (last week). So, there is no question of noncooperation (as alleged by the CBI). But the agencies must have papers and proper evidence in place before they call such senior officers.” 

A Trinamool Congress MP said the investigations signalled “an unprecedented situation” for the country. 

“The way the CBI arrested a former finance and home minister, violating all protocol and in a Bollywoodish way, we assume that they can do anything,” the MP said, adding, “They were only summoning politicians earlier, now they are calling officers to embarrass the state government.”  

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, however, said the central investigative agencies were only out to catch “anybody… directly or indirectly involved in this huge scam”. 

“Thousands of people lost their hard-earned money in the chit fund scam. Politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats formed a nexus and that is why such a scam could take place,” he added. “So, the CBI is acting according to rules and the evidence they have. This is part of their probe.”  

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the investigations were “perhaps the reason why the chief minister has softened her stand against the Modi government”. 

“She is trying to send a message to Delhi that she is not against the Centre,” he added, “After the repeal of Article 370, we saw her speaking only about the method but not the act of breaking the state. In fact, after Chidambaramji’s arrest, she again spoke about the way it was done, not about the action.” 


Also read: How Mamata is wooing Hindus — vigil on Eid, appeals to Muslims not to kill animals in open