Kolkata: Mamata Government has gone the whole hog to protect Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar from being interrogated by the CBI in a ponzi scam and in the process a full-fledged showdown has ensued between the city police and CBI sleuths. The all-out war has prompted Mamata to launch a sit-in protest and since last night all Opposition leaders have lent support to ‘Didi’ calling the CBI’s crackdown "an attack on constitutional norms". Here’s a 10-pointer on Rajeev Kumar who has become the cynosure of everyone’s attention.

  • 53-year-old Rajeev Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre.

  • He is a BE in computer science from IIT Roorkee

  • Kumar, a native of Uttar Pradesh, is tech-savvy and skilled in electronic surveillance.

  • He has held the posts of Superintendent of Police (SP), Special SP, Deputy Commissioner, Joint Commissioner (Special Task Force), Director General (CID)

  • Kumar was once accused by Mamata for snooping on the opposition on behalf of the Left Front government

  • The IPS officer, who led a Special Investigation Team of West Bengal Police probing the ponzi scams (the Rose Valley scam worth over Rs 15,000 crore and Saradha scam about Rs 2500 crore), was to be questioned regarding missing documents and files but he is not responding to notices to appear before the CBI.

  • Kumar along with others in the police unit were accused of dragging its feet in its investigation of the scams.

  • Kumar, who is also described as a suspect in the case, had reportedly written to the now-removed CBI director Alok Verma last October after receiving summons to appear before the agency. He had alleged a witch-hunt for which he blamed “one senior leader of a political party”.

  • He did not even attend a meeting with Election Commission officials last week who had gone to Kolkata to meet him regarding election preparedness.

  • Reports say Kumar was spotted in a book fair some days back.