Former Calcutta police commissioner Rajeev Kumar did not appear at the CBI office on Saturday morning, choosing to send an email seeking one month to appear before the agency, sources said.

Kumar had been summoned by the CBI in connection with investigations into deposit default cases involving Saradha and Rose Valley after Calcutta High Court refused to give him protection against arrest.

On Friday, by email, the CBI had asked Kumar to turn up at its Salt Lake office on Saturday morning. “He did not turn up. He sent a mail seeking a one-month time frame,” said a CBI source.

Till Saturday evening, the CBI had not sent a reply to Kumar. CBI officials consulted lawyers, but did not make any announcement on their course of action.

CBI joint director Pankaj Srivastava declined to comment on the email sent by Kumar, who is currently posted as additional director-general of police, CID. “We are looking into it. Nothing can be said now,” he said.

Another joint director of the CBI posted in Delhi, Sahi Manohar, reached Calcutta on Saturday — the day Kumar was to appear before the CBI.

As Kumar failed to appear at the CGO complex office, a team of officers went to their Nizam Palace office to meet joint director Srivastava before all of them called on CBI counsel Y.J. Dastoor.

A large contingent of police was posted outside 34 Park Street — the compound that houses the office of the deputy commissioner (south) along with the IPS quarters, one of which is allotted to Kumar.