More Trouble For TMC? Enforcement Directorate Summons Trinamool MLA, Anubrata's Daughter, Others In Cattle Smuggling Case

KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress MLA of Murshidabad Jakir Hossain, TMC leader Anubrata Mondal's daughter Sukanya and two others to its office in New Delhi next week in connection with the ongoing investigation into the alleged cattle smuggling, an official of the probe body said on Thursday. Hossain, a former minister of the Mamata Banerjee government and a businessman, has been asked to carry all "necessary documents", he said.

"We have summoned Jakir Hossain in connection with the cattle smuggling case. He was asked to appear on March 2 and because he did not appear we have summoned him again next week," the official told PTI.

While the date of his appearance was not divulged by the probe agency, Hossain told PTI that he has not received the summons as yet.

The Income Tax department seized Rs 11 crore in cash from properties linked to Hossain in January this year.

Sukanya Mondal, her driver Tufan Midda and non-teaching staff of Labpur College in Birbhum district, Vijay Rajak were asked to appear before the ED in the national capital on March 20, the ED official said.

Sukanya was earlier asked to appear before the ED in Delhi on Wednesday but had skipped it. She had sent a mail to the ED's office requesting for time to appear before it.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad leader Kripamoy Ghosh, who was also served the summons on Wednesday night to present himself at the central investigation agency's office in Delhi on Thursday did not do so.

Ghosh was seen sitting with Mondal, the TMC Birbhum president, at a restaurant in Shaktigarh when the arrested leader was being taken from Asansol correctional home to an ESI Hospital in Joka here for a fitness test before being sent to New Delhi.

ED officials said that the bank accounts of Midda, Rajak and Ghosh were allegedly used to receive and transfer money.

"It seems that money collected in the smuggling was transferred through the bank accounts of these people. We need to know about the details of these fictitious transactions and that is the reason they have been summoned," the ED official told PTI.

The TMC strongman's daughter had earlier appeared before ED officers for interrogation related to some fictitious transactions made through the accounts of two companies where she was named as director.

The probe agency arrested Mondal's chartered accountant Manish Kothari on Tuesday in connection with the alleged crime after several hours of questioning.

Mondal, the president of TMC's Birbhum district unit and an influential leader of the party, was taken into custody by CBI in the cattle smuggling case in August 2022. He was arrested by the ED in November last year and taken to New Delhi for the probe into the scam.