Cattle smuggling case: Delhi court sends Manish Kothari to ED remand for 5 days

New Delhi [India], March 15 : Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday sent Chartered Accountant Msh Kothari, close Aide of jailed TMC strongman Anubrata Mondal to ED remand for five days in connection with the West Bengal cattle smuggling case.

A close aide of Mondal, Kothari was arrested by the ED on Tuesday after his questioning at the ED headquarters for nearly 10 hours.

The Special Judhe Raghvir Singh on Wednesday decided to send Kothari to ED remand till next Monday.

Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress party's president of Birbhum district Anubrata Mondal and said to be a close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee was earlier arrested by the CBI in connection with the same case last year.

Recently ED arrested him in the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam after questioning him inside the Asansol jail where he was lodged.

The economic intelligence agency is also learnt to have planned to question Mondal's daughter, Sukanya and 10 other people in the case in the coming days.

After arresting the Birbhum TMC president on August 12, last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned and questioned Sukanya Mondal in its Delhi headquarters a few months ago. However, according to sources, she did not disclose much to the CBI at that time.

After the CBI, the ED arrested the TMC strongman in the cattle smuggling case. The TMC leader is facing an ED probe in the alleged money laundering case related to West Bengal's cattle smuggling case.

Enamul Hoque, who is the kingpin in the cattle smuggling case, and Saigal Hussain, Mondal's bodyguard, are in Tihar jail right now and the ED is planning to question them as well.

Mondal was picked up by the CBI on August 12 from his Bolpur home after the central probe agency said it had found his direct involvement in the cattle smuggling scam. The TMC leader's name came up in the cattle smuggling scam case after the CBI registered an FIR in 2020.

As per CBI investigation, over 20,000 cattle heads had been seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) between 2015 and 2017 as they were being smuggled across the border.

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