Cattle smuggling: Calcutta HC dismisses TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s plea seeking protection from arrest
The Calcutta High Court Tuesday upheld the single bench order which refused to grant Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal protection from arrest in a cattle smuggling case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj orally observed that there was no error in the order of the single bench.
Mondal, who is TMC’s Birbhum district president, has been under the CBI scanner after his name cropped up during the case investigation. Mondal has, on four occasions, skipped the agency’s summons for questioning in connection with the case.
On March 11, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had observed that the facts of the case did not warrant interference by the court and had dismissed Mondal’s petition seeking protection from any coercive action by the CBI. Challenging this order, the TMC leader moved the division bench of the high court.
According to sources, the CBI is now planning to send him another notice to appear before the agency.
The central agency had on September 21, 2020, registered a case against BSF Commandant Satish Kumar, three private persons and several others over allegations of illegal cattle trade along the West Bengal-Bangladesh border in connivance with public servants. The alleged kingpin in the scam, Mohammad Enamul Haque, was arrested from New Delhi in November 2020.
