After completion of an additional four days’ remand, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Birbhum leader Anubrata Mondal will appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Asansol for the third time on Wednesday.
Sources told The New Indian that the CBI will demand further judicial custody of Mondal while his lawyer will continue to pray for the leader’s bail.
In a fresh spin on the cattle smuggling case that involves Mondal, the CBI special court judge Rajesh Chakraborty received a threat letter asking him to grant bail to Mondal or else he and his family will be implicated in the NDPS case. After the threat letter came to the fore, Mondal said he will himself request the judge with folded hands for a CBI investigation into the matter.
On August 11, Mondal was dramatically detained by the CBI from his residence for questioning in the cattle smuggling case. Later, he was arrested by the probe agency. Previously, the judge had sent him to CBI custody twice. Mondal is scheduled to be brought to Asansol court again on Wednesday after his custody ends.
Judge Chakraborty wrote a letter to Ld. District Judge, Paschim Bardhaman, informing him about the threat letter in which the name of a man ‘Bappa Chatterjee’ has popped up. During the last hearing three days ago, the CBI addressed Mondal as a “powerful and highly influential person”, and also stated that granting him bail might “tamper evidence”.
The letter, written by the judge “with great anxiety” on August 22, reads, “I do hereby forward to you a letter by one Bappa Chatterjee being addressed to the officer in-charge of this court threatening that if Anubrata Mondal is not released, my family members would be implicated in NDPS case…”
“For that I pray before Your Honour to take note of the fact and transmit the same to the Ld. Registrar, Judicial Service, Appellate Side, Hon’ble Calcutta High Court,” the letter further reads.
Reacting to this matter, BJP national IT cell in-charge and West Bengal co-observer Amit Malviya tweeted, “CBI Judge in Asansol gets threat letter, asking him to give bail to criminal Anubrata Mondal, failing which his entire family would be framed in NDPS case.”