West Bengal: CBI searches underway in Bolpur, Kolkata in connection with cattle smuggling case

The CBI on Wednesday said that it is conducting searches at four places in West Bengal (in Bolpur and Kolkata) in connection with the cattle smuggling case.

According to officials, CBI search is underway at the residence of a businessman, in Bolpur, Birbhum. He is a close aide of TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal was sent to 14-day judicial custody by the CBI Special Court in the alleged cattle smuggling case last week.

Mondal, a close associate of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was arrested recently in connection with the 2020 cattle-smuggling case.

The special court judge said the letter warned that if Mondal "was not released his family members would be implicated in the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act case with commercial quantity," the judge's letter read.

The arrest also led to a war of words between the BJP and the TMC. Finance Minister of West Bengal Chandrima Bhattacharya had alleged that the CBI summons to Mondal was "political vendetta."

BJP leaders have repeatedly accused the TMC regime of fostering corruption.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on September 21, 2020, arrested a former Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant, in connection with an illegal cattle smuggling case across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Anubrata Mondal's name came under the CBI scanner during the investigation of the case, the agency had claimed.

(ANI)

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