The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday summoned Trinamool Congress ‘strongman’ from Birbhum in West Bengal and national executive committee member Anubrata Mondal for questioning in case of the cattle smuggling. The CBI has ordered him to appear at around 5:30 pm on April 23.
This is after the Mondal got discharged from the state-run SSKM Hospital. The CBI has also summoned him in connection with the post-poll violence case and has asked him to appear at 2:30 pm on April 24.
According to the reports, the leader has been summoned five times in the past by the CBI in the case of cattle smuggling but he has failed to appear before the agency every single time. The last time, he was scheduled to appear before the probing agency on April 6. However, he complained of numbness in the chest and shortness of breath.
He wrote to the CBI and asked them to dispense with his presence at their office for the next 4 weeks. He informed them that he was hospitalized at SSKM hospital in Kolkata. On March 11, a division bench of Justice Rakshekhar Mantha at the Kolkata High Court had turned down Mondol’s plea for a legal shield against arrest by CBI during or after interrogation.
Thereafter, he was scheduled to visit the Nizam Palace office of the central agency on April 6 for interrogation. The CBI however considered his health issues and patiently waited at the office with a set of questionnaires related to the case. Kolkata police personnel had also been deployed both at the Nizam Palace office as well as SSKM Hospital.
Kolkata cattle smuggling case-
Last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against seven people in a transborder cattle smuggling case, including suspected kingpin Enamul Haque and BSF commandant Satish Kumar. The others named in the charge sheet were Anarul Seikh, Mohammad Golam Mustafa, Taniya Sanyal, Badal Krishna Sanyal, and Rashida Bibi. The agency had evidence against the illegal cross-border selling of cattle, delivery, and use of ill-gotten money.
On September 21, 2021, the CBI registered a case against the accused and arrested Satish Kumar and Haque as prime accused. According to the agency, 20000 cows were seized by the BSF before being transported across the border between December 19, 2015, and April 22, 2017. The cattle were auctioned within 24 hours of seizure and moved across the border to Bangladesh. TMC’s Anubrata Mondal has been under the CBI scanner after his name cropped up along with TMC’s Vikas Mishra and Vinay Mishra’s names during the case investigation.