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Anubrata Mondal’s lottery prize under CBI scanner; ED grills aides, daughter
CBI is investigating whether Anubrata Mondal, who is now in judicial custody, procured the prize-winning ticket from someone else to whitewash proceeds from the cattle smuggling operation
KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned a dealer, a sub-dealer and a retailer of a Nagaland-based lottery company in Bolpur town of Bengal’s Birbhum district in connection with its probe into the first prize of ₹1 crore that Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mondal is said to have won in 2021, people aware of the development said.
The dealer and the sub-dealer were asked to report to the CBI’s camp office in Bolpur with documents relating to the prize Mondal won.
CBI is investigating whether Mondal, who is now in judicial custody, procured the prize-winning ticket from someone else to whitewash proceeds from the smuggling operation. One of the distributors was grilled twice at the CBI’s Kolkata office earlier this week.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also investigating the lottery company’s operations in Bengal since relatives of two more TMC leaders recently won the first prize.
Sheikh Munna, the retailer who sold the prize-winning ticket as per the company’s records, told CBI that he did not sell it to Mondal.
“I sell tickets in local villages. I can’t remember who bought it but it was certainly not Anubrata Mondal,” Sheikh Munna told reporters while leaving the CBI’s camp office in the evening.
A CBI officer who asked not to be named said records showed that Mondal got the first prize in a draw held on December 7, 2021. He was declared to have won ₹1 crore against a ticket priced at ₹6.
But when the lottery company published a newspaper advertisement in January this year with Mondal’s photograph, saying that he had won the first prize, he contradicted the claim in his interactions with local media.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that TMC leaders are laundering money through lottery operations in the state.
Leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, sent a letter on this issue to Union home minister Amit Shah in November last year, around a month before Mondal win the prize.
On Friday, BJP’s Bengal unit president Sukanta Majumdar took a swipe at the ruling TMC on the topic.
“TMC leaders seem to have found an astrologer who predicts precisely when they will win the first prize. I urge them to share the address of this astrologer. Let other people try their luck as well,” Majumdar said.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh dismissed the allegation.
“Rules for lottery operations are framed by the Centre. This lottery company is based in another state. BJP leaders cry murder when one or two of our men win a prize but keep silent when hundreds of people win the first prize every week,” Ghosh said.
HT could not contact the lottery company over phone despite several efforts.
Mondal’s daughter Sukanya was also interrogated for the third consecutive day by ED at its Delhi office. Mondal’s chartered accountant, Manish Kothari, and two Birbhum-based businessmen, Rajib Bhattacharya and Tulu Mondal, who are known to be close to the TMC leader, were also interrogated in Delhi on Friday, ED officials said.
Though Kothari and Bhattacharya were questioned earlier, this was the first time Tulu Mondal faced ED. CBI raided his residence in Birbhum’s Siuri town two months ago.
