CBI vs Mamata: Solicitor General says CBI thought of moving SC Sunday night itself

NEW DELHI: The CBI had contemplated moving the Supreme Court on Sunday night itself when the West Bengal Police took into custody agency officials and laid siege to the residence of its Joint Director in Kolkata, but had to abort the plan due to a paucity of documents and other reasons, a senior law officer said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that at the last moment it was decided to wait until Monday morning before approaching the apex court.

"Initially, there was a discussion among the concerned officials in the CBI to move the apex court last night itself but it was decided to wait till Monday morning," he told the bench.

Further, he said paucity of documents was also coming in the way to draft the applications.

"When we drafted the interim applications yesterday, we did not have our records. It was under the seige of police. We got the records today only," Mehta said.

Sources said another reason the CBI could not approach the apex court Sunday night was that Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi arrived late after 10:00 pm from Amravati in Andhra Pradesh where he laid the foundation stone for a permanent complex of High Court and inaugurated an interim building where the court will function till the construction of a permanent structure is completed.

The Solicitor General told the bench, also comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna, that the CBI sleuths who were taken into the custody of the West Bengal Police were later released.

He said CBI officials had gone to the residence of the Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the probe in the Saradha scam.

Mehta said "extraordinary situation" developed on Sunday in which CBI officials were arrested in Kolkata and its joint director and his family were kept hostage.

He said the need for filing urgent applications arose as the top police officials of the West Bengal Police are also sitting on a dharna along with a political party in Kolkata.