Cattle smuggling scam: Like father, Anubrata Mondal's daughter uncooperative during questioning, says CBI

Bolpur: The CBI on Wednesday alleged that arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s daughter did not cooperate with its sleuths over questioning for its ongoing investigation into an alleged cattle smuggling scam, a senior officer said. When a four-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) went to the TMC Birbhum district president’s residence in Bolpur, his daughter Sukanya Mondal, a primary school teacher, told the detectives that she could not talk to them as she was not in an “emotionally good shape” due to the recent death of her mother and arrest of her father. “Like Anubrata Mondal, his daughter also did not cooperate with the CBI. She refused to talk to our officers who visited her residence stating that she was depressed due to the death of her mother and jailing of her father,” the officer said. A four-member team including a woman officer had gone to Mondal’s Nichupatti residence here as a part of the probe, but left within 10 minutes after Sukanya refused to talk to them. The CBI officer said that the agency was trying to find out how Sukanya Mondal could accumulate so much wealth despite being a primary school teacher. “Sukanya Mondal has several properties registered under her name. She is also the director of a couple of companies. We will seek details of her income as a school teacher. There are several discrepancies and many questions need to be answered,” he told PTI. Meanwhile, in the morning, CBI grilled the arrested TMC leader’s accountant Manish Kothari for over two hours at its temporary camp office here, the officer said. The agency also grilled two officials of the bank where the TMC leader has several bank accounts, he said. The CBI suspects that several bank accounts belonging to Mondal’s daughter were used for financial transactions in the scam, he added. The CBI has also frozen fixed deposits worth Rs 16.97 crore allegedly belonging to Anubrata Mondal and his family members in connection with cattle smuggling case across Indo-Bangladesh border. The agency detected the fixed deposits during its continuing probe in the case, officials said. The probe agency also alleged that Vikas Mishra, brother of absconding TMC leader Vinay Mishra, and Mondal provided protection to associates of alleged cattle smuggler Enamul Haq who used to buy animals at a market in Ilambazar, the officials said. The smugglers used to ferry animals from Ilambazar to Indo-Bangla border under the alleged protection of Mondal and Mishra from state enforcement agencies, they said. They used services of some BSF officials, including charge sheeted Satish Kumar, to get these cattle smuggled to Bangladesh, the officials said. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.