Former Calcutta police chief Rajeev Kumar, allegedly absconding after apprehending arrest by the CBI in the Saradha probe, got a breather on Tuesday after a Calcutta High Court division bench granted him anticipatory bail.

Soon after, CBI sources said they had started the process for challenging the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Accepting the bail plea of the IPS officer, the division bench of Justices Sahidullah Munshi and Subhasish Dasgupta held that at this stage of the Saradha probe, there is no need for the CBI to seek Kumar’s custodial interrogation.

The bench also said Kumar had co-operated with the CBI and appeared before the agency whenever called. The court, however, asked Kumar to obtain a formal bail from any subordinate court by furnishing two personal release bonds of Rs 50,000 each.

The court directed Kumar to appear before the CBI investigators and co-operate with them. “The CBI will have to issue a 48-hour prior notice to the petitioner (Kumar) asking him to appear before it,” the bench said.

To secure bail, Kumar had moved every level of the judiciary since April this year, after the Supreme Court withdrew his protection and gave him the liberty to seek anticipatory bail before any court in Bengal.

As the CBI had issued a notice to Kumar in May this year to appear, the IPS officer first moved Calcutta High Court seeking quashing of the notice. The court then issued an interim order restraining the CBI from taking any coercive measures against Kumar till his petition was disposed of.

On September 3, a single-judge bench of Justice Madhu Mitra dismissed Kumar plea, holding that the CBI had the power to interrogate Kumar.

Armed with the order, the CBI officers went to Kumar’s residence at Park Street that very day to hand him a notice asking him to appear for interrogation the next day. But Kumar was not available at his residence. Since then, the investigators have raided various places in the state but failed to trace him.

Kumar had first moved an anticipatory before a Barasat judge. He failed to obtain an order and then moved the district and sessions judge of Alipore. But the Alipore judge, too, declined to grant him bail. Kumar then moved the division bench of the high court.

According to CBI, as a member of the special investigation team formed by the Mamata Banerjee government to probe the Saradha scam, Kumar had damaged certain documents which he did not hand over to the agency after the Supreme Court entrusted it with the probe.