Cattle smuggling case: TMC leader Anubrata Mondal arrested by CBI after skipping summons

After the controversial arrest of Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal has also been arrested in West Bengal. Mondal has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in relation to a cattle smuggling case, as per reports.

TMC leader Anubrata Mondal had been summoned for questioning several times by the authorities, but after failing to show up for the summons, CBI officials decided to arrest him for not cooperating with the investigation in the cattle smuggling case.

Senior officials confirmed that Anubrata Mondal had failed to appear for questioning twice in three days, indicating a failure of cooperation. Earlier, the TMC leader had written to the CBI, saying that he won’t be able to appear for the questioning citing illness as a reason.

A CBI official had told PTI, “We have received a communication from Mr. Mondal in which he informed us about his inability to appear before our officers at our office here today. In the letter, Mr. Mondal has written that he is on total bed rest as per the advice of the doctors and cannot move outside his residence. He has attached two copies of doctors’ prescriptions and requested us to give him two weeks’ time to come to our office.”

The multi-crore cattle smuggling scam became the second massive scam to come forward after the West Bengal SSC scam, under which former Bengal cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee had been arrested.

CBI has taken Mondal into custody and will most likely question the TMC leader in relation to the scam. The duration of his custody is not yet known.

(With PTI inputs)

READ | Maharashtra: Income Tax sleuths find Rs 56 crore cash, 32 kg gold in Jalna raid; took 13 hours to count