CBI begins questioning Anubrata

After an hour-long questioning, the CBI arrested Mondal on Thursday at his Bolpur residence in Birbhum district. The TMC Birbhum president was produced before a special CBI court in Asansol that sent him to CBI custody till August 20.

Upon reaching Kolkata on Friday, Mondal, who had told the court the previous day that he was suffering from a breathing problem, was taken to Alipore Command Hospital, where a medical team comprising four doctors, including a cardiologist and a surgeon, examined him for around an hour and also looked into his previous medical reports, said CBI officials.

After the check-up, the TMC leader was taken to the central agency’s Nizam Palace office, they said. During the questioning, said CBI sources, Mondal requested agency officials for phone calls to his daughter and spoke with her over the phone’s speaker twice.

Meanwhile, CBI on Friday morning recorded the statement of Dr Chandranath Adhikari of Bolpur Sub-District Hospital, who had told the media that he was forced to advise bed rest to Mondal. Dr Adhikari had said that Mondal asked him to prescribe bed rest for 14 days on plain paper.

According to CBI sources, besides Dr Adhikari, the agency has also summoned Bolpur Sub-Division Hospital superintendent Dr Buddhadev Murmu.

“I told the CBI the same thing that I had told the media. I took a medical team to see Mondal at his house on the instructions of the hospital superintendent. And, on the ‘request’ of the Trinamool leader, he was prescribed bed rest for 14 days,” Dr Adhikari told the media on Friday. Besides, the CBI also wanted to know about Mondal’s health condition, said Dr Adhikari.

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya on Friday claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had stopped picking calls from Mondol and (Partha) Chatterjee. “It’s a message to other TMC ministers and workers, and bureaucrats who colluded with her that they too will be abandoned,” said Malviya.