A Delhi court after a mid night hearing has remanded All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) leader Anubrata Mondal to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) until March 10 in relation to the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam case charged against him.
The AITC leader was booked for allegedly smuggling cattle to Bangladesh by bribing the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel.
As per the reports he was taken to Delhi from West Bengal by air on Tuesday and was produced before a Delhi court, soon after the Calcutta High Court on Saturday, March 4, had declined to halt the process.
The order was delivered by Special Judge Rakesh Kumar who instructed the ED to produce Mondal before a regular court on March 10.
As per the prosecution, the prime accused Md Enamul Haque and his associates had conspired along with BSF personnel and custom officials for illegally smuggling cattle to Bangladesh.
For making the movement of the cattle through the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad, Haque had obtained illegal favours from the Mondal, a ‘powerful political satrap.’
It was alleged by CBI that Mondal used his influence to facilitate the crime and got gains for his, however, on last August 11,he was arrested in the case.
In a March 4 order, the plea by Mondal was rejected by Justice Bibek Chaudhuri of the Calcutta High Court to prevent the probe agency from producing him before the Delhi court.
Mondal had said that the ED had submitted orally about not proceeding with the production of Mondal before the trial court at Delhi. However, the High Court noted that even going by the online report relied on by Mondal to support his claim, the ED’s oral assurance was only that it would refrain from executing the production warrant until January 9.
The High Court also had noted that although Mondal had earlier complained of suffering from illness,he was discharged from hospital. It added that there was no acute reason for holding that Mondal is unfit by reason of his sickness from being removed to Delhi.
The Calcutta High Court had criticised Mondal for attempting to “forum shop” and obviate the proceedings before the Delhi court.
The Calcutta High Court had subjected that successive applications filed by the petitioner in different courts for obtaining favourable order are undoubtedly a clear instance of ‘forum shopping’ which would not be encouraged.
The High Court had also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on Mondal which had to be paid to the High Court Legal Services Authority as compensation “for instituting successive, harassing applications of similar nature before the highest seat of judiciary of two States of the Country to obviate the process of the Court.”
On January 4, the Calcutta High Court had rejected Mondal’s bail plea in the case after noting that the TMC leader was an ‘influential’ person, who has been involved in intimidating the witnesses.