The CBI on Thursday arrested Trinamool Congress ‘strongman’ and national executive committee member Anubrata Mondal in the cattle smuggling case. The TMC leader was arrested from his residence in Bolpur, West Bengal.
According to reports, a team of the CBI went to his residence at around 10 am on Thursday with the CRPF being deployed outside and arrested Mamata Banerjee’s top aide. The CBI team was accompanied by a team of 100 CRPF personnel, who had surrounded the residence while the CBI officials entered the house and arrested the TMC leader.
Cattle smuggling case | A team of CBI arrives at the residence of TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal in Bolpur. #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/nqRaukoOBc
— ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2022
When the CBI team arrived at the residence of Anubrata Mondal with a search warrant, they found the house locked from the inside, and they had to wait for around half an hour for it to open. When the gate was finally opened, they entered the house and conducted a search operation. They recovered documents and electronic devices, questioned residents of the house, and then arrested Mondal.
Mamata Banerjee’s close aide Anubrata Mondal skips 10 CBI summons
Prior to his arrest, the CBI had summoned Anubrata Mondal at least ten times in the past over cattle smuggling. He, however, failed to show up every single time, citing health issues. As per reports, he had skipped the CBI summons for the 10th consecutive time on August 10 (Wednesday), after which the CBI team arrested the TMC leader.
Interestingly, the senior leader of the Trinamool Congress skipped his ninth summons on Monday, citing “poor health.” He had travelled to Kolkata’s state-run SSKM Hospital for treatment, where a seven-person medical team assessed him. However, the physicians firmly declared that he did not require admission to the hospital.
In April also, when CBI summoned the TMC minister, he evaded the appearance by getting himself admitted to the SSKM hospital in Kolkata, complaining of numbness in the chest and shortness of breath.
Meanwhile, CBI recently raided six locations in Birbhum district in connection with the case and arrested Mondal’s bodyguard Saigal Hossain after he allegedly failed to give them any satisfactory explanation on how he amassed a huge amount of assets despite having a fixed monthly salary.
TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s arrest is the second big arrest by the central agency after Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in jail for his alleged role in the teacher recruitment scam. Anubrata Mondal is TMC’s Birbhum district president.
Kolkata cattle smuggling case
Last year, the CBI 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.
