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In Bengal jail, TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s trusted bodyguard checks up on him
A jail officer said Sehgal Hossain, a police constable assigned to TMC’s Birbhum district unit president Anubrata Mondal, inquiries about Mondal’s health ever since the TMC leader was taken to the correctional home
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mondal and his bodyguard Sehgal Hossain are locked up in adjacent cells of the West Burdwan district’s Asansol correctional home where they were sent by a special court in connection with the cattle smuggling case, people familiar with the matter said.
Mondal and Hossain, who share the space with half a dozen other inmates, were spotted talking to each other several times during the past week, an official of the correctional home said on condition of anonymity.
Hossain was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 10, two months before Mondal was taken into custody by the federal agency on August 11.
Hossain, a West Bengal police constable assigned as one of the bodyguards of the TMC’s Birbhum district unit president, has been inquiring about Mondal’s health ever since the TMC leader was taken to the correctional home, the official added.
“Mondal needs a nebulizer on a regular basis and has to take around 17 medicines at different times of the day. Hossain frequently inquires whether he is taking the pills on time or not,” the official added.
Officials said since Mondal cannot use the Indian-style toilets accessed by other prisoners due to his weight, he has been allowed to use a different lavatory.
“Mondal’s lawyers and family members sometimes bring in home-cooked food but so far he has not complained about the food at the canteen. He enjoys rice and vegetable curry. As a disciple of Kali, he wanted to have mutton on August 27 which coincided with the auspicious Koushiki Amavasya according to the Hindu almanac,” a staff at the correctional home said.
Mondal and Hossain are prime suspects in the cattle smuggling case in which thousands of cows seized from smugglers at the India-Bangladesh border were allegedly auctioned cheaply back to the people seeking to smuggle them out.
CBI officials visited Asansol on Tuesday and tried to question Mondal and Hossain but neither of them was forthcoming about a large number of properties and businesses suspected to have been bought by them with proceeds from the smuggling operation.
CBI has found more than 160 property registration documents from government records, officials said. Many of these are recorded as land.
“Mondal did not answer a single question,” a CBI official said on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, CBI focused on Bolpur town in Birbhum, where Mondal lives, and raided the homes of several people believed to be close to him.
One of them is Mondal’s chartered accountant, Manish Kothari, who was questioned for hours on August 21 as well. CBI suspects that Kothari is aware of Mondal’s properties and the two companies owned by his daughter, Sukanya, who is a primary school teacher.
HT reported on August 28 that the companies - Neer Developer Pvt Ltd and ANM Agrochem Foods Pvt Ltd - received ₹27.73 crore between 2018-22 as deposits from either another company or from their own directors.
CBI also questioned Biswajyoti Banerjee, a councillor at Bolpur municipality, Sudip Roy, a businessman, and Sujit Dey, a TMC worker known to be close to Mondal.
CBI wants to question his daughter Sukanya Mondal as well. Officials said the agency is examining if the two companies were used to launder money from cattle smuggling.
But Mondal continues to have chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s trust. Banerjee first spoke in his favour after his arrest at a TMC rally on August 14. “What has Kesto done?” she said, referring to the Birbhum leader by his nickname and lambasting CBI and the Centre.
On Wednesday, Banerjee told a press conference that a vilification campaign has been started by opposition parties to bracket all TMC leaders as corrupt.
“There are some bad elements in all parties. In TMC, less than one per cent can be found to be dishonest. You cannot put the rest on public trial because of them,” she said.
On August 8, CBI filed its third charge sheet in the cattle smuggling case, accusing Hossain of accepting money from several people on Mondal’s behalf. The 41-page charge sheet mentioned that 59 properties and businesses, including a petrol pump, stone crushing units, brick kilns and apartments are registered in the names of members of Hossain’s family.
CBI also gave the court records of phone calls that other prime suspects, including Muhammad Enamul Haque, made to Hossain’s mobile phones.
Mondal denied the charges during interrogation in CBI custody and claimed to have no information about Hossain’s properties, CBI officials said.
