The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the CBI to file a formal application on its “prayers” for further directives against former Calcutta police commissioner Rajeev Kumar for allegedly tampering with evidence in the Saradha scam.

The court refused to comment on the “seriousness or otherwise” of the allegations made by the agency against the IPS officer. The charges have been mentioned in an affidavit submitted to the court in a sealed cover following the examination of Kumar last month.

“We have perused the affidavit….We would not like to comment on the seriousness or otherwise made in the averments,” a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, told attorney-general K.K. Venugopal and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta — appearing for the CBI — that the agency should file a “separate application” on its “prayers” for further directives against Kumar.

The CBI’s affidavit alleged that Kumar had tampered with records related to the scam, including those on phone calls. Venugopal read out certain portions of the report before the bench, which later asked the registry to re-seal it.

However, since the agency had made “certain prayers”, Justice Gogoi felt they “should ideally be the subject matter of a separate application”. The court then asked the agency to file the application within 10 days. The Bengal government will then have seven days to counter the plea. The next hearing date was not fixed.

The precise nature of the “prayer” made by the CBI for further directives against Kumar is not known as it was in the sealed cover.