West Bengal: TMC leader Anubrata Mandal skips CBI summons in cattle smuggling scam due to 'serious illness'

Kolkata: TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal on Friday citing health issues didn’t appear before the CBI in the cattle smuggling scam.

This is the second time that Mandal has skipped CBI’s quizzing citing health issues.

Mandal’s lawyer who visited CBI headquarters at Nizam Palace said that he is ‘seriously’ ill for which he couldn’t attend the quizzing and sought some more time from the CBI officials.

On the other hand, Mandal was seen visiting a hospital in Birbhum’s Siuri. According to hospital sources, Mandal has high blood pressure and needs to take rest.

CBI on February 9 had sent notice to TMC Birbhum district president Mandal and had asked him to be present before the CBI officials on February 14 for quizzing in cattle smuggling scam. Failing to appear on February 12, CBI had again sent a notice to Mandal and asked him to be present before them on February 25.

It can be recalled that last month the CBI had sent notice to Mandal over his alleged involvement in post-poll violence and also that CBI had evidence against Mandal being instrumental in killing BJP cadre Gaurav Sarkar in Birbhum’s Illambazar.

However, following an appeal to Calcutta High Court, the court had instructed that CBI cannot take any ‘harsh action’ against Mandal without informing the court.

Apart from Mandal, TMC MP Dev (Deepak Adhikari) was also summoned by CBI over his alleged connection with scam kingpin Enamul Haque. After being quizzed for over five hours on February 15, Dev said that he didn’t know Haque and has no connection with him.

Published on: Friday, February 25, 2022, 07:42 PM IST