The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Calcutta police commissioner to “faithfully cooperate” with the CBI at all times but restrained the agency from taking any “coercive steps, including arrest”.

Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar will be questioned in the neutral Shillong in Meghalaya to avoid “unnecessary controversy”, the apex court added.

The order issued by the bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna also directed the Bengal chief secretary, the director-general of police and the commissioner to file replies on or before February 18 to the contempt petition against them.

On the basis of the replies, the officers will be informed on February 19 whether their presence is required in the court on February 20, the next date of hearing.

The bench passed the directives after briefly hearing attorney-general K.K. Venugopal and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre, and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the Bengal government.

The Centre filed a sworn affidavit accusing some of the ruling political leaders in Bengal and the special investigation team then headed by Rajeev Kumar of actively conspiring to destroy evidence in the Saradha deposit-default case and scuttle the probe ordered by the Supreme Court.

It also submitted a “sealed-cover report” containing “evidence” sought by the apex court on Monday to support the claim that the commissioner needs to be questioned to prevent him from destroying evidence.

The Chief Justice had said on Monday that the court would “come down heavily” on Kumar, which “he would regret”, if the allegations turned out to be true.

In response to a question on the role of Kumar in the SIT, Venugopal described him as the functional head and said: “We wanted to question Mr Kumar as we had serious doubts as to the material handed over to us was the entire material. The call data records which were given to us were incomplete.

“One of the main accused, Sudipta Sen, who was head of the chit fund company, was arrested in J&K. A laptop and some mobile phones that contained data were recovered from him. But without retaining any part of the data or sending it to the forensic science laboratory…, the phone was handed back by the SIT to the accused. This was a very serious thing. We found a number of discrepancies in the call data. The details as to whom the calls were made were deleted.”

Chief Justice Gogoi then proceeded to pass an order that Kumar shall present himself before the CBI for questioning. However, the AG said that contempt notices should also be issued to him and other officers.

Justice Gogoi initially expressed reluctance, saying that it would lead to further prolonging of the matter as it may require issuing notices, obtain their replies and determine the issue.

However, Venugopal said: “Your Lordships must issue notices… the CBI officers were forcefully taken to the police station and held there for several hours by the state police. The residence of the joint director was under siege. The state police personnel had surrounded the house of the joint director. His daughter and wife were inside. They were banging at the door but he (the officer) didn’t open because he knew something serious was happening.”

Senior advocate Singhvi, appearing for the Bengal government, said Kumar was willing to appear before the CBI anytime, including with the entire staff of the erstwhile SIT “even at a neutral place”.

“According to me, this is only an attempt to humiliate and harass me (Kumar). In 2016, this court had appreciated the work of the SIT. The transfer to the CBI was made because this is a multi-state problem. Arrests have been made between 2013 and 2019, but till today, he (Kumar) is not an offender. No FIR has been registered against him. There is no complaint,” Singhvi said.

The senior counsel further pointed out that the notices to Kumar under CrPC Section 160 for appearing as a witness were issued somewhere in January 2018.

“Then suddenly there was this happening on Sunday. What was the purpose of coming on a Sunday? They must answer it as it happens immediately, two days after a political rally (a reference to Modi’s rally in Bengal),” Singhvi said.

The senior advocate further pointed out that in July last year, an apex court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had directed the CBI to approach Calcutta High Court for any grievance linked to alleged non-cooperation by the state police.

“Whatever is being seen today in the application (by the CBI) was not there till yesterday morning, it has been added overnight. Now they want the commissioner to surrender, when there is no FIR or complaint against him,” Singhvi said.

The bench then issued the directives and scheduled the next hearing for February 20.