ED gets custody of Anubrata Mondal after doctors declare him fit to travel to Delhi

Four ED officers and one doctor will be accompanying Mondal on the flight to New Delhi.

In a major setback to arrested Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday took the arrested leader to Delhi after doctors at the Joka-ESI Hospital in Kolkata found him fit to travel.

Mr. Mondal was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a cross-border cattle smuggling case on August 11, 2022. Since then, the Birbhum district party president has been behind bars and has been questioned by the CBI and ED on several occasions.

Mr. Mondal was brought to Kolkata from a correctional home in Asansol and taken to the city airport by ED officials. He is likely to be produced before a court in Delhi on Wednesday.

The ED has made several attempts to take Mr. Mondal to the national capital. It was only after the Trinamool Congress leader exhausted all his legal remedies that the agency is taking him to Delhi. Last week, the Calcutta High Court set aside Mr. Mondal’s petition challenging a production warrant issued by a special CBI court to produce him in Delhi. The court had also imposed a fine on him for approaching High Courts in Calcutta and Delhi at the same time to prevent the ED from taking him to Delhi.

A number of other accused persons in the cattle smuggling scam, including Mr. Mondal’s security guard Saigal Hossain, have already been taken to Delhi.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has cried foul over the ED’s action, while Opposition parties have welcomed the move, stating that Mr. Mondal continues to remain influential and intervenes in the politics of the region.

While the Trinamool Congress has dumped its former secretary general Partha Chatterjee, now behind bars for his alleged involvement in the recruitment scam, the party has decided to put its weight behind Mr. Mondal.  The fact that the Trinamool strongman is being shifted out of West Bengal ahead of the panchayat polls also assumes political significance.