Anubrata Mondal case: Bengal lawyers write to CJI, seek transfer of matter outside state amid ‘death threats’

Kolkata: A group of lawyers from West Bengal on Thursday wrote to the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana raising concerns over the alleged threat to a CBI judge presiding over Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal’s case as they sought the transfer of the case outside West Bengal.

In their letter to CJI, the lawyers said, "We the practising advocates of the High Court at Calcutta and other District Courts of West Bengal are shocked and filled with cold horror owing to a recent occurrence pertaining to a Court proceeding concerning a high-profile politician of West Bengal which is nothing less than a direct and brazen attack in the Justice delivery system."

The lawyers said that Special CBI Court, Asansol Judge Rajesh Chakraborty has been threatened by one Bappa Chatterjee by writing a letter addressed to him with the direct threat that if the bail of Anubrata Mondal, an accused in connection with the cattle smuggling case which is being investigated by the CBI, is not granted, then the family members of the said judge will be implicated in some NDPS case showing seizure of narcotics in commercial quantity.

They said that such fact has already been already brought to the notice of the District Judge, Paschim Burdwan by Justice Rajesh Chakraborty. "The said accused namely Anubrata Mondal is a Birbhum District Trinamool Congress Party President and is a highly influential person who is now in CBI custody in a cattle smuggling case. As such it is a matter of grave concern that Judicial Officers are attempted to be intimidated for the benefit of a highly influential politician in custody," the lawyers wrote. 

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"We the general lawyers of Calcutta High Court and other District Courts of West Bengal are very concerned upon coming to know about such fact and strongly protest against such attack upon the judiciary. We beseech Your Lordship to take an appropriate step in the matter and to transfer the said case from West Bengal to any other state so that the administration of justice may not be interfered with and/or hampered and the erring persons are punished accordingly," they urged. 

Earlier on Wednesday, a special CBI court judge alleged that he has received a letter threatening to implicate his family in drug cases if he did not grant bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal. The Asansol Special CBI court judge Rajesh Chakraborty alleged that the letter he received was signed by Bappa Chatterjee. 

Mondal, the Trinamool Congress’ Birbhum District President was arrested last week in a 2020 cattle smuggling case. The special court judge said the letter warned that if Mondal "was not released his family members would be implicated in the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act case with commercial quantity," the judge’s letter read. 

The judge also sought the attention of the district judge and also brought it to the notice of the registrar-general of the Calcutta High Court. After his arrest, Mondal, a close associate of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was sent to CBI custody till August 24.

Mondal was summoned several times by the CBI but he evaded appearing citing health issues. He was finally arrested on August 11 from his residence in Bolpur in Birbhum district. The arrest also led to a war of words between the BJP and the TMC. 

Finance Minister of West Bengal Chandrima Bhattacharya had alleged that the CBI summons to Mondal was "political vendetta." BJP leaders have repeatedly accused the TMC regime of fostering corruption. The CBI had on September 21, 2020, arrested a former Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant, in connection with an illegal cattle smuggling case across the Indo-Bangladesh border. Anubrata Mondal’s name came under the CBI scanner during the investigation of the case, the agency had claimed.