CBI seeks bank records of TMC leader Mondal, kin in cattle smuggling case

The CBI sent notices to the Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank in Bolpur town, where Mondal, his daughter Sukanya, and other suspects have accounts, said a senior CBI official.

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday asked three banks in West Bengal’s Birbhum district to provide details of transactions made by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal, his relatives and associates, who are suspects in a cattle smuggling case, officials said.

CBI in its charge sheet against TMC leader Mondal last month had claimed that he is suspected to be linked to 168 land and property deeds executed since 2014 (Hindustan Times)

The federal agency sent notices to the Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank in Bolpur town, where Mondal, his daughter Sukanya, and other suspects have accounts, said a senior CBI official.

On Wednesday, CBI questioned Kerim Khan, a district TMC leader and close associate of Mondal, for over seven hours at the agency’s Kolkata office. Khan was questioned on Tuesday as well at CBI’s camp office in Bolpur.

“Sukanya Mondal, who was also summoned on Monday, skipped the questioning and sent an email to CBI, saying she was unwell and needed time to recover,” said the CBI official, requesting anonymity.

On September 28, several documents kept at the record room of the Bolpur branch of Axis Bank were destroyed in a fire reportedly caused by a short circuit.

CBI officials visited the branch several times since July in connection with the cattle smuggling case, in which Mondal, TMC’s Birbhum district unit president, was arrested on August 11. He is currently lodged in the Asansol correctional home in neighbouring West Burdwan district.

CBI officials said both Mondal and his daughter, who is the director of two companies that are under scanner, have accounts in the Axis bank.

The record room caught fire around that same time when Sukanya Mondal’s lawyer provided CBI with records of financial transactions of the two companies that the federal agency had asked for.

CBI in its charge sheet against Mondal last month had claimed that he is suspected to be linked to 168 land and property deeds executed since 2014. At least two dozen of these deeds belong to Mondal, claimed CBI, while the remaining 144 registration papers bear the names of his relatives, aides and their kin.

CBI has claimed that proceeds from cattle smuggling were used to buy these properties.