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CBI grills TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s nephew; daughter cites illness again
Sukanya Mondal, who has faced CBI questioning only once since her father’s arrest, was also told to visit the camp office by October 17 after her lawyers told CBI that she left Bolpur for some medical treatment
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal’s nephew was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for four hours in the cattle smuggling case on Wednesday but Mondal’s daughter, Sukanya, skipped the summon citing illness, officials of the federal agency said.
Raja Ghosh, son of the TMC leader’s sister Shibani Ghosh, was summoned to the CBI’s camp office at Bolpur town in Bengal’s Bibhum district where Mondal is president of the party unit.
Sukanya Mondal, who has faced CBI questioning only once since her father’s arrest, was also told to visit the camp office by October 17 after her lawyers told CBI that she left Bolpur for some medical treatment.
Anubrata Mondal was arrested by CBI on August 11 and is at the Asansol correctional home in the adjoining West Burdwan district.
CBI officers claim Mondal was linked to 168 land and property deeds executed in or after 2014. The agency believes that at least two dozen of these properties belong to Mondal and the remaining 144 registration papers bear the names of his relatives, aides and their kin. One of them is Raja Ghosh.
CBI alleges that proceeds from cattle smuggling were used to buy these properties.
Ghosh was asked about the properties owned by him and his parents but he could not give any satisfactory explanation regarding the source of funds, a CBI official said on condition of anonymity.
Sukanya Mondol, 31, a primary school teacher appointed by the state government in 2011 when the TMC first came to power, is also director of the Neer Developer Pvt Ltd and ANM Agrochem Foods Pvt Ltd.
The other director of these companies is Bidyut Baran Gayen, an employee of Bolpur municipality.
Gayen was summoned on Wednesday but he, too, cited illness and did not visit the CBI camp office.
The two companies have their offices at the same address where the Bholebam Rice Mill owned by Sukanya Mondal is located in Bolpur. The two companies are recorded as tenants of the rice mill against a monthly rent of ₹500 each.
CBI raided the mill on August 19 and subsequently traced documents which indicate that between 2018 and 2021 as many as 16 property deeds were recorded in the name ANM Agrochem Foods while three properties were purchased by Neer Developer.
A CBI official said on condition of anonymity that money from a foreign bank is suspected to have been transferred to the accounts of Sukanya’s companies.
Sanjib Majumdar, secretary of the Birbhum District Rice Mill Owners’ Association and a TMC leader, was questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday but Bharat Ghosh, the association’s president, did not respond to a summon sent to him on Wednesday.
HT reported on August 28 that Neer Developer and ANM Agrochem Foods received ₹27.73 crore between 2018-22 as deposit from either another company or from their own directors.
On September 16, Sukanya Mondal was asked about the source of funds of the two companies since she is a primary school teacher and her companies never declared to have taken any bank loan. She could not give any satisfactory reply, said an official who did not want to be named.
