CBI names TMC’s Mondal as prime accused in cattle smuggling case

In the 35-page charge sheet filed at a special court in Asansol, the CBI said Anubrata Mondal, who was arrested on August 11, not only facilitated the cattle smuggling operation but also financially benefitted from it, according to lawyers representing the agency, who saw the document.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal as the prime accused in the cattle smuggling case in the fourth charge sheet filed at a West Bengal district court on Friday, officials said.

The CBI has named Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal as the prime accused in the cattle smuggling case (ANI)

In the 35-page charge sheet filed at a special court in West Burdwan district’s Asansol town, the CBI said Mondal, who was arrested on August 11, not only facilitated the cattle smuggling operation but also financially benefitted from it, according to lawyers representing the agency, who saw the document.

To substantiate the charge, the CBI referred to several raids conducted since May this year, during which it found several bank accounts, around ₹18 crore kept in fixed deposit accounts and more than 160 land and property registration deeds. At least two dozen of these properties belong to Mondal while his relatives own the rest, aides and their kin, said the charge sheet. The CBI said proceeds from cattle smuggling were used to buy properties.

Mondal, the Birbhum district unit president of the ruling TMC, is a resident of Bolpur town, where the CBI has set up a camp office to interrogate suspects and conduct raids, officials close to developments said.

In the charge sheet, the CBI further mentioned the properties and businesses, including a rice mill owned by the TMC leader’s daughter Sukanya Mondal, a primary school teacher who owns two companies in Bolpur.

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 directors. Sukanya Mondal was questioned by the CBI on September 16.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is also probing the cattle smuggling operations, interrogated Mondal’s former bodyguard Sehgal Hossain, who was arrested by the CBI on June 10 and named as a prime accused in the third charge sheet filed on August 8. He is currently lodged at Asansol correctional home in West Burdwan with the TMC leader.

A three-member ED team flew down from Delhi to interrogate Hossain and formally arrested him. The Asansol court, however, did not permit the ED to take Hossain to Delhi for interrogation saying he could be questioned at the correctional home, where he will remain in CBI custody, officials said.

The ED also told the court that it wanted to interrogate Mondal. The agency said it submitted a prayer to this effect before a special court in Delhi.

Hossain, a West Bengal police constable, was deployed by the state government as one of Mondal’s bodyguards.

Both were interrogated by the CBI inside the correctional home several times since their arrest, but officials said they did not answer most questions about cattle smuggling, in which thousands of cows seized from smugglers at the India-Bangladesh border over several years were allegedly auctioned cheaply back to the people seeking to smuggle them out. The CBI registered the case in 2018 and two Border Security Force (BSF) commandants have been arrested.

The CBI’s third charge sheet accused Hossain of accepting money from several people on Mondal’s behalf. The 41-page document mentioned that as many as 59 properties and businesses are registered, mostly in the Murshidabad district, in the names of members of Hossain’s family. The CBI also submitted records of phone calls that other prime suspects, including Muhammad Enamul Haque, made to Hossain’s phones and claimed that it was Mondal who carried out the conversations.

On September 28, while the investigations were on, a large number of documents kept in the record room of the Bolpur branch of a nationally known private sector bank were destroyed in a fire. CBI officers visited the branch several times in the last two months because Mondal and his daughter have accounts there. The record room caught fire around that time when Sukanya Mondal’s lawyer provided the CBI with records of the financial transactions of her companies that the federal agency had asked for.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee initially spoke in Mondal’s support at a TMC rally on August 14. “What has he done?” she said, slamming the CBI and the Centre.

However, a few days later, Banerjee held a press conference to say 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.

After the CBI named Mondal in its charge sheet on Friday, Bengal’s parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay echoed the chief minister’s statement.

“There is no political party where all leaders are honest. One or two dishonest persons can be found everywhere,” Chattopadhyay said without naming Mondal.

Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bengal unit, said: “The probe will eventually expose the involvement of senior TMC leaders.”