Kolkata 17 August : Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigators are investigating the multi-crore cattle smuggling investigation in West Bengal on Wednesday confiscated bank fixed deposit worth around 16.97 crore in the name of Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal and his family members. “For the past few days, we’ve been monitoring different bank accounts that were held by Mondal and his family members.We followed these fixed deposits worth around Rs 16.97 crore and whose origins were fake.Our investigation will begin with the sources of the funds to maintain fixed deposits of this high value.
Apart from Mondal his daughter Sukanya Mondal and a few of their closest relatives were the holders of these accounts” an CBI official stated.
The majority of these fixed deposits were deposited at the Bolpur branch of the Bank of India (BOI) located near Mondal’s ancestral home in the city.
A fixed deposit identified Mondal’s late wife Chobi Mondal as the account owner.
The inquiry revealed that the procedure of the confiscation of the bank accounts began at the beginning of Wednesday morning.
Prior to that, Mondal’s chartered accountant, Manish Kothari and two of BOI’s Bolpur branch officers were interrogated there by CBI officials in the early hours of Wednesday.
Then, a group of the CBI detectives visited the bank, spoke with the branch manager, and presented the authority to seize the accounts of banks.
The manager of the branch immediately informed the regional headquarter of the changes after which the sleuths from the central agency confiscated the accounts of the bank.
This is the very first significant confiscation of fixed deposit accounts of massive amounts by the CBI team.
The Enforcement Directorate sleuths seized Rs 50 crore in cash from the two homes of Arpita Mukherjee who was the close aid of the former West Bengal Minister, Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment scam.
There is no official statement from TMC leaders on this political change.
However, opposition party’s leaders have slammed the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over this matter.
“Only on the 14th of August the Chief Minister stood up for Mondal and claimed that he was falsely accused by the CBI.In the near future, she will be able to explain where the massive amount of the money was sourced?” was the response of Samik Bhattacharya, the West Bengal BJP spokesman, Samik Bhattacharya.
The CPI(M) Central Committee member, Sujan Chakraborty said that this recovery of money from the TMC leader is only the top of the iceberg.
“As CBI will go deeper into the investigation, more treasures will be exposed.The Chief Minister is how long will he be in a position to defend Mondal?” he asked.
src/khz/
