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, a 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. The Finance Minister of West Bengal, Chandrima Bhattacharya, had alleged that the CBI summons to Mondal was a “political vendetta.”