Cattle smuggling case: Now CBI raids residence of Anhubrata Mondal's close aide

Kolkata, Aug 21 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday conducted search operations at the residence of Bidyut Baran Gayen, a close associate of arrested Trinamool Congress strongman, Anubrata Mondal, in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam.

The raids were conducted at Gayen's residence in Kalikapur area at Bolpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

Gayen is the second Director in two companies, ANM Agrochem Foods Pvt Ltd and Neer Developer Pvt Ltd, where the other director is Mondal's daughter, Sukanya Mondal. The rice mill owned by her also has the name of Gayen as a partner.

CBI sources said that till recently, Gayen was just an ordinary clerk with Bolpur Municipality. "We want to try to understand how, from just an ordinary municipality worker, Gayen earned such huge property in the last few years and even became Director of the two companies," a CBI official said.

The CBI sleuths strongly believe that the two companies were just shell companies meant for channelising the proceeds of cattle smuggling, which they did under the camouflage of huge amounts of unsecured loans.

Meanwhile, legal brains have raised another question, which if brought to the notice of the Calcutta High Court and more specially, the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, can really bring trouble for Sukanya Mondal - that is how she, despite being a primary teacher in a state-run school in Bolpur, can have her name enrolled as Directors in two companies and a partner in the rice mill.

According to senior counsel, Kaushik Gupta, as per service rules of teachers in state-run schools, they are not supposed to get involved in any other income generating activity or get associated with any private entity. "This is applicable even in case of part-time teachers, unless someone gets special permission from his or her appointment authority on this count. From that angle, it is apparent that Sukanya Mondal has flouted all norms. But it has to be seen whether she has used her father's influence to get any permission from her appointment authority or not," he said.