TMC leader Anubrata Mondal at the CBI office in Kolkata on Thursday. (Express Photo)The Birbhum district president of Trinamool Congress, Anubrata Mondal, reached the CBI office in Kolkata on Thursday morning after evading summons regarding the ongoing probe into the cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.
Mondal reached the anti-corruption branch of the central probe agency’s Nizam Palace office in Kolkata at 9:50 am.
Sources said that the CBI has call records and documents on the basis of which Mondal will be questioned. The TMC leader is appearing before the CBI for the first time after having sought tine from them till May 21.
The CBI had summoned Mondal soon after the Calcutta High Court upheld a single-judge bench’s order last month refusing him any protection from arrest in the cattle smuggling case. On April 6, Mondal was admitted to the state-run SSKM Medical College and Hospital and discharged on April 22. Since then, the CBI had summoned him twice — once in connection with the cattle smuggling case and another time over the post-poll violence in Bengal.
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The 61-year-old TMC strongman is a trusted lieutenant of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On September 21, 2020, the CBI had filed a case against BSF commandant Satish Kumar and several others in connection with illegal cattle trade along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal.
Anubrata Mondal’s name cropped up during the investigation and the CBI had been trying to question him for a long time.
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