Cattle scam: ED might initiate process of taking TMC's Mondal to New Delhi

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) might initiate the process of taking Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal to New Delhi for questioning in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in West Bengal.

A team of interrogation experts of ED from New Delhi is already here.

On Thursday morning, they left for Asansol in West Burdwan district to question Mondal at the special correctional home there. As per ED sources, the probe team will restrict their line of questioning to the financial matters involved in the scam, especially the ones related to quantum jump in the assets and properties of Mondal and his family members during the peak period of cattle smuggling.

After questioning, if the agency officials are not satisfied with the cooperation extended by Mondal, they will first inform about their experience to a special court in Asansol which is hearing the matter on a regular basis.

At the same time, the central agency might approach the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi for transit remand to take Mondal in the same lines they adopted in case of Mondal's bodyguard Sehgal Hossain.

To recall, on November 11, Mondal was dealt a twin blow after the Supreme Court withdrew the protection from arrest granted to him in a post-poll violence case before a special CBI court in Asansol extended his judicial custody by 14 days for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore scam.

Multiple lottery awards won by Mondal and his daughter Sukanya Mondal have also come under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is running a parallel probe in the cattle smuggling scam.

The CBI officials are of the opinion that it cannot be just a coincidence that so many lottery awards had been credited to the accounts of the father-daughter within a period of little over three years.

--IANS

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