From a fish seller to one of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's closest aides, Anubrata Mondal has come a long way. However, trouble mounts for Mondal with the CBI arresting him in the cattle smuggling scam case on Thursday.
President of the TMC in Birbhum, Mondal is a core committee member of the party, and was in-charge of many other districts of West Bengal. From his home in Bolpur, Mondal controlled the party's affairs in Birbhum, Burdwan, West Burdwan, Jhargram and Bankura districts. Bolpur is popular as the location of Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan or the Abode of Peace. However, the peaceful ambiance of his neighbourhood does not seem to have had an effect on Mondal's actions—he had told TMC workers to hurl bombs at the police during violent panchayat election in 2018, allegedly did not allow opposition members to file nominations during polls and also created fear among voters. After the 2021 election, he was grilled by the CBI for his alleged connection in the post-poll violence in the state. Though he has now been arrested in the cattle smuggling case, he could possibly be named in many.
For Mamata, Mondal has been an "able organiser". Some TMC leaders, however, feel that Mondal's rise could not have been possible without Mamata's backing.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumder said: "The chief minister created a Frankenstein who is out to destroy her." Mondal was the man who coined slogans ahead of every election. He popularised the "Khela Hobe" slogan which Mamata and the TMC adopted in 2021. Mondal had told this correspondent that time: "Didi never dictated terms for me as I never aspired for any cabinet post. I never even wanted to contest an elections."
In the ongoing coal and cattle scams case, which amount to several thousand crores of rupees, the CBI found Mondal to be the key man making money out of coal smuggling across Bangladesh border and also found him to be a beneficiary in coal smuggling from Eastern Coalfield Corporation Ltd in Assansol. The CBI had recently arrested his bodyguard Sehgal Hossain and found huge amounts of money. "Whatever Sehgal received was at the instruction of Anubrata," said a CBI officer.
The state Directorate of Security which is in-charge of the security of chief minister and her nephew, MP Abhishek Banerjee, also looked after Mondal's security. The TMC heavyweight enjoyed Z category security. He had OSDs and three PSOs other than around 50 police men to guard him round the clock.
But the CBI ran out of patience as Mondal refused to appear before the agency even after he was summoned multiple times. On Thursday, a huge contingent of CRPF accompanied the CBI to his Bolpur house. After an hour of interrogation, when Mondal tried to call Mamata like Partha Chatterjee did, the CBI officials took him into their car and headed for Kolkata. Mamata did not accept the call, sources said.
