Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mondal from his residence in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. He is the first leader from the state’s ruling party to be held in the case of alleged cattle smuggling being investigated by the central probe agency.
The CBI had filed its first FIR in the case in 2020. According to them, between 2015 and 2017, over 20,000 cattle heads were seized by the Border Security Force as they were being smuggled across the border.
Earlier this week, the CBI had served two notices to Mondal to appear before them in Kolkata for questioning, but the TMC leader had skipped both.
A team of CBI officials, led by superintendent (anti-corruption branch) Rajeev Mishra, reached Mondal’s residence around 10 am and secured the residence from inside and outside. CBI sources told ThePrint that the officials were armed with a court order and Mondal’s medical report that had been submitted by his lawyer to evade questioning.
The TMC leader has been taken for a medical examination to a Kolkata hospital.
On Monday, the CBI submitted its fourth chargesheet in the case of alleged cattle smuggling before the Asansol CBI Court, naming, among others, Mondal’s bodyguard Saigal Hossain as an accused.
On 9 June, Hossain was arrested by the CBI in the ongoing investigation. In the chargesheet, the CBI reportedly claimed that Hossain’s call records showed he had been in direct contact with cattle smugglers. The CBI stated before the court that they had found at least 49 property deeds in his possession. Hossain was a police officer deputed to guard Mondal and had allegedly amassed properties worth crores.
The CBI will now seek Mondal’s custody before the CBI court for custodial interrogation.
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Who is Anubrata Mondal?
Mondal, 61, famously referred to as ‘Keshto’, comes from a family of farmers and has been with the TMC for the past two decades. A trusted lieutenant of TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the party’s top leader in Birbhum, he was, earlier this year, made a member of the party’s national working committee.
While he has never fought elections, he has been effective in consolidating the TMC’s votebank in the district — the party won 11 of the 12 Assembly seats in 2021 and both Lok Sabha seats in 2019, which fall within Birbhum.
Mondal has made headlines in the past for his provocative speeches. In 2013, ahead of the Panchayat polls, he has reportedly told party workers to “hurl bombs” at the police and burn the homes of opposition candidates. There have been no reports of the party taking any action against him.
Mondal is also under CBI investigation in a case related to post-poll violence in the state.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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