What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
KOLKATA: TMC strongman and Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a cattle smuggling case on Thursday.
He is now being shifted to Durgapur camp office, from where he will be taken for a medical test. Mondal will be questioned again before being produced in Asansol court.
Mondal was arrested in the cattle smuggling case after he didn’t cooperate with the CBI in its probe.
The CBI sleuths reached Bolpur last night and stayed at a hotel before reaching Mondal’s house early Thursday morning. The CBI arrived at his house with the central forces.
Till Wednesday, he skipped CBI’s summon for the ninth time. He appeared only once before the CBI in May in the case.
It’s been reported that as per estimates, tens of thousands of cattle are smuggled into Bangladesh annually. The CBI began raiding six places in Bengal’s Birbhum district last week. Earlier in June, the CBI arrested Saigal Hossain, who has been appointed as Mondal’s personal security. The probe agency raised doubts over Hossain’s property.
The FIR of the case also names Border Security Force (BSF) officials, including Satish Kumar, who was a Commandant of BSF’s 36 Battalion in Malda from December 19, 2015 to April 22, 2017.
The illegal cattle trade flourishes along the periphery of West Bengal on India-Bangladesh border. The cattle are sourced from several states. Cattle smuggling came into limelight through a CBI investigation in West Bengal border area that stretches through 2,216km.
Cattle that are priced between Rs 80,000 and 50,000 in Bangladesh are smuggled from India, whereas in India, the cows are brought at a lesser price. Smugglers, racketeers, and people with political links are under CBI scanner in the case.
