NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a cattle smuggling case after failing to appear for questioning twice in three days.
Mondal was arrested from Bolpur in West Bengal.
According to the CBI, over 20,000 cattle heads were seized by the Border security force while being smuggled across the border between 2015 and 2017.
Meanwhile, as per reports, Mondal had written to the CBI about his inability to appear before its sleuths in connection with a cattle smuggling case citing "illness" as a reason.
With this arrest, two prominent TMC leaders in West Bengal have been arrested by central agencies.
Earlier, Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee had been arrested by the ED in a teacher recruitment scheme scam to the tune of crores.
Interestingly, a group of Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers in West Bengal on Wednesday made an attempt to send across a message to the people that the involvement of former state education minister Partha Chatterjee in the teacher recruitment scam does not make all in the party 'thieves'.
On August 8, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to be a party in public interest litigation regarding the assets and property details of 19 heavyweight leaders, including seven current ministers, in West Bengal.
Referring to that, a few Trinamool leaders and ministers named in the PIL called a press conference on Wednesday wherein they issued an appeal not to consider everyone in Trinamool Congress as offenders because of the wrongdoings of Partha Chatterjee.
"We are all ashamed for what Partha Chatterjee has done. But it is not fair that just because of his wrongdoings, all Trinamool Congress leaders should be considered thieves. I want to question the CPI(M) leadership whether any of their leaders or followers can accuse me of misbehaving with them," said state minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, whose name figures prominently in the PIL.
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