The Calcutta high court on Saturday set aside a petition by Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman and a prime accused in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, challenging a production warrant issued by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
The ruling paved the way for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take the TMC leader to Delhi for questioning.
On Friday Calcutta high court judge Bibek Chaudhuri started a virtual hearing on Mondal’s appeal but the proceedings had to be adjourned due to the death of former union minister and noted barrister Satyabrata Mookherjee. A special hearing was held on Saturday.
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“The bench also ordered Mondal to pay a fine of ₹1 lakh as he had approached the high courts in Calcutta and Delhi at the same time to prevent the ED from taking him to Delhi,” said a senior lawyer.
Earlier Mondal received a setback when the Delhi high court refused to hear a petition filed by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal who has been representing Mondal since last year. The Delhi high court had said that it would hear the petition after it is heard by the Calcutta high court.
Mondal, a prime suspect in the Bengal cattle smuggling case, moved the high courts in Kolkata and Delhi after a court in Asansol in West Burdwan district on Thursday allowed him to be shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail so that he can be produced before Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court by the ED.
The order came after Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court had earlier this week asked the ED why Mondal, a prime suspect in the cattle smuggling case, was not being produced before it, although a production warrant for this was issued in December 2022.
The CBI arrested Mondal on August 11 last year in connection with the cattle smuggling case. He was named in the CBI’s fourth charge sheet filed at the Asansol court on October 7.
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Mondal was later arrested by ED on November 17 in connection with money laundering charges linked to the case.
Mondal’s former bodyguard, Sehgal Hossain, who was arrested by CBI on June 10 last year and named in the agency’s third charge sheet filed on August 8, was earlier shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail on ED’s request.
Justice Chaudhuri directed that a medical officer will accompany Mondal to Delhi and he will be examined medically by doctors immediately after he arrives in the National Capital.