Asansol (West Bengal): A special CBI court in West Bengal's Asansol town on Thursday remanded TMC leader Anubrata Mondal in 10-day custody of the central agency in connection with a cattle smuggling case. The TMC Birbhum district president was arrested by CBI sleuths from his Bolpur residence earlier in the day.
The special CBI court judge remanded Mondal in CBI custody till August 20 on a prayer by the investigating agency. The TMC leader's lawyer said no bail prayer was moved by him. On the allegation that Mondal was not cooperating with the agency's investigation, the lawyer said that an accused has the right to remain silent and that whatever he has to say will come up during the trial.
The team of nearly 100 CBI officers had to go through hell while taking him to Asansol in West Burdwan district nearly 84 kilometres away from his home. After travelling a few hours, the Trinamool Congress District president who is also a chronic patient of hypoxia and diabetes wanted a rest stop so that he can use the toilet. According to the team of the doctors present in the CBI entourage, a chronic diabetes patient will have frequent urination and so it was inevitable for the CBI team to allow him to go to the toilet.
“Not only that Hypoxia where the patient suffers from low levels of oxygen in his or her body tissues. It causes symptoms like confusion, restlessness, difficulty breathing, rapid heart rate, and bluish skin. He needs fresh air else it would lead to breathing problems,” a senior CBI officer present in the team said.
So the CBI convoy that consisted of 25 SUVs stopped at a petrol pump in Kanksa in West Burdwan district but the toilet was so narrow that an oversized Mondal failed to make his way through the door. The CBI repeated the same process in another petrol pump but Mondal couldn’t enter.
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“Mondal is a high profile person and we had to make all the arrangements before we could allow him to alight from the vehicle. The entire petrol pump was sanitised and we cordoned off the entire area because we cannot take any chances,” the officer said.
As Anubrata was getting restless so the CBI officers finally decided to book a hotel room so that he can refresh himself. Accordingly, a hotel room was booked near Kanksa police station and finally Kesto (Anubrata’s local name) was relieved of his 'painful ordeal'. “We had to travel another 40 kilometres and so we didn’t want to take any chance. He has some chronic problem and we were really worried. It was an unusual situation but we managed to take him safely to Asansol where he will be produced before the court,” the officer said.
A CBI team officials escorted by a huge contingent of central armed forces personnel arrested Anubrata after an almost hour-long interrogation. The country's premier central agency is investigating the cattle smuggling case in West Bengal. After the Trinamool Congress's Birbhum district president ignored ten consecutive summons from the CBI, the central agency's top brass decided not to wait anymore and instead reached his residence on Thursday morning.
