Cattle smuggling case: Calcutta HC rejects bail plea of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal

West Bengal [India], January 4 : The West Bengal High Court refused to grant bail to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and the TMC president of Birbhum district, Anubrata Mondal in the cattle- smuggling case.
The TMC leader was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged involvement in the cattle- smuggling racket across the India-Bangladesh border. Mondal was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the case after an interrogation which lasted more than five hours in the Asansol jail.
The trial court earlier noted ED's case is based upon the Scheduled Offence (CBI case), the proceedings of which are going on there at Asansol, West Bengal in a CBI Court and some of the accused are in Asansol jail regarding the same.
Mondal was also arrested in July for the same case by CBI. ED filed a chargesheet on the basis of a CBI case against Satish Kumar, the then commandant, Border Security Force (BSF)-36 Battalion, Enamul Haque, Anarul SK, Golam Mustafa and other officials of the BSF and Indian Customs and unknown others for alleged commission of a cognisable offence under sections 120B of the IPC and various sections of the PC Act, 1988.
One of the accused and a close confidant of Mondal, Sehegal Hossain was also arrested by the ED and are under judicial custody in Delhi. ED earlier also attached 32 properties worth Rs 1.59 crore belonging to Hossain and his family members.