On Tuesday the Supreme Court granted bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal in the cattle smuggling case with the demand to surrender his passport and cooperate with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He has been granted bail but will remain in Tihar Jail in connection with a parallel probe that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting into the same allegations. On August 11, 2022, he was arrested by CBI when he was president of the TMC’s Birbhum district unit. His daughter, Sukanya, is also in custody in the same case.
TMC chairperson and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is personally supervising the performance of the Birbhum district unit since Mondal’s arrest. The district president’s post remains vacant. Representing Mondal in court on Tuesday, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that he has been in custody as a suspect for almost two years while the other accused were granted bail.
CBI’s counsels opposed Mondal’s bail plea, CBI said he can influence witnesses using his political clout and the federal agency alleged that Mondal facilitated smuggling of cattle into Bangladesh through Birbhum and Murshidabad districts.
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