In a major cash seizure, the Birbhum District Police in West Bengal recovered unaccounted cash and gold worth crores from the residence of Minar Mondal, brother-in-law of absconding businessman and influential stone quarry owner Tullu Mondal.
The counting of the seized cash was completed on Thursday morning, with an investigating officer stating that the total amount recovered was slightly over ₹28 crore. Police also seized 15 kg of gold from Minar’s residence, with an estimated market value of over ₹21 crore.
Minar was formally arrested on Thursday morning as police personnel left his house carrying trunks containing the seized cash and gold. He is expected to be produced before a district court in Suri later in the day.
Birbhum Superintendent of Police Bidit Raj Bundesh said Minar initially refused to disclose the source of the cash and gold during questioning. However, he later allegedly admitted that the assets were linked to a syndicate-based crime network.
The recovery comes amid a wider crackdown on alleged illegal mining activities and revenue leakages in Birbhum, a district that has long been under scrutiny over allegations of illegal quarrying and organised crime linked to the stone trade.
Police reportedly received information about the cash and gold during the interrogation of seven alleged dacoits arrested last week. Acting on the tip-off, a search operation was launched at Minar’s residence on Wednesday afternoon and it continued until Thursday morning.
According to reports, Minar was earlier employed as a driver with the North Bengal State Transport Corporation before leaving the job a few years ago to join the stone business operated by Tullu Mondal.
A source told PTI that Minar was allegedly in charge of one of the seven toll gates in the area through which trucks from stone quarries passed, collecting revenue from transporters. “He is likely to have diverted a large amount of cash meant for government coffers, and this is a portion of that wealth that the police have now recovered,” the source said.
Investigators are now likely to examine whether Tullu Mondal had any links to the cash and gold recovered from Minar’s residence. Tullu is a close associate of Anubrata Mondal, the former Trinamool Congress district president in Birbhum, who recently joined the rebel camp led by Ritabrata Banerjee.
Tullu’s name had earlier surfaced in connection with a cattle smuggling case in the state. In August 2022, an agency searched several of his properties, including his office and godown in the Mohammad Bazar area. He was later arrested by the Birbhum Police in connection with a murder case registered in October 2022.
A police source claimed that after securing bail, Tullu went into hiding following the declaration of the state election results in May this year.
The seizure has drawn comparisons with the recovery of nearly ₹50 crore in unaccounted cash, along with gold ornaments and foreign currency, from properties linked to Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, during Enforcement Directorate raids in July 2022 in connection with the state’s school jobs recruitment scam.
