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Arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal flown to Delhi by ED on court orders
Last week, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court questioned the ED why Mondal was not being produced before it, although a production warrant for this was issued in December 2022
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal, who was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged role in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, was flown to Delhi by the federal agency on Tuesday.
On the orders of a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, authorities of the Asansol jail in West Burdwan district, where the Mondal was lodged, brought him to Kolkata under the protection of the Asansol Durgapur police. He was handed over to the federal agency after a three-hour-long check up by doctors of the ESI hospital. The ED took him to Delhi in the evening. Three ED officers and a doctor accompanied him.
Last week Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court questioned the ED why Mondal was not being produced before it, although a production warrant for this was issued in December 2022. Mondal, however, has been citing his poor health to avoid going to Delhi. The Calcutta high court on Saturday set aside a petition by Mondal in which he had challenged the production warrant issued by the special CBI court, virtually paving the way for the federal agency to take the him to Delhi.
The CBI arrested Mondal on August 11 last year in connection with the cattle smuggling case. He was named in the CBI’s fourth charge sheet filed at the Asansol court on October 7 last year. Mondal was later arrested by ED on November 17 in connection with money laundering charges linked to the case. In December last year he was arrested by the state police on the basis of a complaint lodged by a TMC worker who alleged that Mondal tried to murder him.
After landing at Delhi he would be taken either to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital or Safdarjung Hospital where he would be examined again, said an ED official. “As the court would be closed on Wednesday, we would seek directions on his production,” said an official, who did not want to be named.
Some people raised slogans “cattle thief’’ when Mondal was brought to the ESI hospital in Kolkata. On his way to Kolkata, Mondal was seen talking to a TMC youth leader and the driver of his daughter Sukanya for almost 30 minutes when the convoy stopped at Shaktigarh.
“Justice would be done and the truth will come out. We have full faith on the judiciary. The agency-raj will not have the last word. The people will say the last word,” said Firhad Hakim, senior TMC leader and state minister.
“He was not taken to Delhi during the winters as it was too cold. Now he can enjoy the lassi in Tihar jail. The TMC was concerned because the panchayat poll is approaching and they are not sure who would manage the poll in Birbhum district without Mondal. That’s why they were trying to prevent him from going to Delhi,” Dilip Ghosh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice president, told reporters.
Mondal’s former bodyguard, Sehgal Hossain, who was arrested by the CBI on June 10 last year and named in the agency’s third charge sheet filed on August 8, was earlier shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail on ED’s request.
