Kolkata 11 August : A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal remanded Trinamool Congress strongman and party’s Birbhum district president, Anubrata Mandal, to CBI custody until August 20th.The CBI officials detained Mandal from his home at Bolpur in Birbhum district about 11 a.m.on Thursday.After conducting a medical check-up, he was presented at the special CBI court.
The CBI counsel in the court requested 14 days of custody of Mandal.
Surprisingly enough, his counsel did not make the bail request.
After hearing both sides, the court ruled CBI custody of Mandal until 20 August.
It is reported that CBI investigators will take Mandal to Kolkata and, during the next 9 days, they’ll be questioning Mandal on the cattle smuggling fraud.
While he was being arraigned at the Special Court of CBI in Asansol, Mandal faced massive protests from community members and politicians who chanted slogans such as “cattle thieves” slogans.
In reality, the activists of CPI-M as well as BJP were gathered on the court campus with their respective flags and shouting slogans in support of Mandal.
Some of them even threw slippers at the leader arrested who was once thought to be the ultimate authority in Birbhum district.
The CBI sleuths as well as the central army personnel had a difficult time in protecting Mandal from the public’s fury and escorting him to the courtroom.
His arrest was greeted with a warm welcome by the heads of the parties of opposition in the state.
CPI-M central committee member as well as former leader of Left parties in West Bengal assembly, Sujan Chakraborty said it’s a great thing that, despite being delayed, CBI has finally arrested Mandal.
“They should question him right now and inform him of the others in the upper levels who have benefited from the proceeds of the cattle trafficking,” he said.
The BJP’s national vice-president and party’s Lok Sabha member, Dilip Ghosh, said it’s an irony Mandal was detained at the time of Raksha Bandhan.
“The influence of the chief minister made him believe himself to be all powerful, and now he will be facing the consequences” Ghosh said.
West Bengal Congress president and veteran party Lok Sabha member, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said that the CBI shouldn’t stop at Mandal but instead do everything to find the people who were his superiors in the Trinamool Congress who also benefited from the crime.
src/pgh
