Anubrata Mondal, the former Birbhum district chief of Trinamool Congress (TMC), came out of the jail in September 2024 after securing bail in cases filed by both the CBI and ED related to alleged cattle smuggling. Five months later, the heavyweight leader is back in the spotlight.
On Friday, the ED provisionally attached 36 bank accounts, registered in the name of “Anubrata Mondal, his family members, his associated firms and companies & Benamidars”, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The accounts held a combined credit balance of Rs 25.86 crore, bringing the total assets attached in the case to Rs 51.13 crore, according to the agency.
Mondal was first arrested by the CBI in August 2022 for his alleged involvement in a cattle-smuggling network between India and Bangladesh. Later, in November 2022, the ED arrested him and took him to Delhi. The ED’s money laundering probe stemmed from a CBI FIR against former Border Security Force (BSF) commandant Satish Kumar, “kingpin” Enamul Haque and others.
His daughter, Sukanya Mondal, was also arrested by the ED in April 2023 before being granted bail by a Delhi court in September 2024.
Reportedly, the ED has accused Mondal of receiving over Rs 48 crore in exchange for providing protection to the cattle-smuggling syndicate, leveraging his significant influence over the administration in Birbhum and surrounding districts.
The agency further claimed that Mondal maintained close contact with Haque through his bodyguard, Sehegal Hossain. Allegedly, he laundered illicit earnings from Haque through multiple bank accounts belonging to his family members, associates, local businessmen, and benami property holders. They allegedly returned the money to him through various banking channels.
The Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case on July 30, 2024, while Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court approved his bail in the ED case on September 20, 2024, upon furnishing a Rs 10 lakh bond, on several conditions.