THE CBI on Monday continued to carry out searches at premises linked to arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal in connection with its probe into an alleged cattle smuggling racket. A team of the agency searched a rice mill in Bolpur and a flat owned by Saigal Hossain, Mondal's bodyguard, who was also arrested recently. The CBI team reached the Shiva Sambhu mill, which is owned by a relative of Mondal, sources said. The CBI will examine the payments made by the state food and supplies department to two rice mills. The CBI had recently searched Bhole Bom rice mill in Bolpur. According to sources, Mondal's daughter Sukanya and his close aide Bidyut Gayen were business partners at the rice mills that were enlisted for rice procurement with the state food and supplies department. According to sources, some documents have been seized from the two rice mills that have been shut for over a year. The documents indicate that payments were received from the state food and supplies department against the rice procurement but there is no record of the supply of the rice to the state government department, sources said. The CBI has also made some enquiries with the office of District Controller of Food & Supplies, Birbhum, about this suspected “link” between the state government and these two rice mills. According to sources, the CBI wants to know the amount of rice procured by the department from these two rice mills and the total payment in exchange of it. According to CBI, at least 18 bank accounts of Mondal are under the central agency's scanner. Some people close to Mondal were allegedly roped in by him to hoard unaccounted money, sources said. Several companies and properties in the name of Mondal's daughter Sukanya Mondal and his close associates are also under the CBI’s scanner. Meanwhile, Mondal, who is TMC's Birbhum district chief, was on Monday taken to the Alipore Command Hospital for another health check-up. Anubrata is currently in CBI custody. He will be produced in court again on Wednesday. Newsletter | Click to get the day's best explainers in your inbox Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come out in support of Mondal and has questioned his arrest. Mondal was arrested by the CBI after it allegedly found he has “direct links” to cattle smuggling and he kept evading summons by the central agency for questioning in the case, sources said.
