The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has made a major headway into the probe against Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal in the multi-crore cattle smuggling and lottery scams, and said that the strongman from Birbhum district in West Bengal may have tried several times to regularise the proceeds from the scam by showing them as lottery prizes.
The federal probe agency found that Mondal won the first prize of a Nagaland-based lottery company in a draw held on December 7, 2021. He was declared winner of ₹1 crore against a ticket priced at ₹6.
Investigations revealed that two years earlier, in 2019, around ₹10 lakh was deposited in Mondal’s account, and ₹51 lakh was deposited in two parts in his daughter Sukanya’s account the same year.
“Mondal tried to regularise the proceeds from cattle smuggling through some lottery prize money. The investigation is going on to find out whether and how he and his daughter won lottery prizes more than once,” said a CBI official.
Also Read:TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s ₹1-crore lottery win under CBI radar
Last week, the central agency questioned a dealer, a sub-dealer and a retailer of the lottery company in Bolpur town of Birbhum district.
{{/usCountry}}Last week, the central agency questioned a dealer, a sub-dealer and a retailer of the lottery company in Bolpur town of Birbhum district.
{{/usCountry}}Sheikh Munna, the retailer who sold the prize-winning ticket as per the company’s records, told CBI that it wasn’t Mondal who bought it.
“I sell tickets in local villages. I can’t remember who bought it but it was certainly not Anubrata Mondal,” Munna told reporters in Birbhum last Friday while leaving the CBI’s camp office.
But when the lottery company published a newspaper advertisement in January this year with Mondal’s photograph, stating that he had won the first prize, he contradicted the claim in his interactions with local media.
Mondal was arrested by CBI on August 11 in connection with the cattle smuggling probe, and is presently in judicial custody. The Enforcement Directorate has also questioned his daughter Sukanya at least thrice in Delhi.