Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Friday granted regular bail to Trinamul Congress leader Anubrata Mondal in the money laundering case related to cattle smuggling lodged by the Enforcement Directorate.
Mondal is lodged in Tihar jail and accused of involvement in illegal activities linked to the smuggling of cattle across the India-Bangladesh border.
In July, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Mondal in a cattle-smuggling case investigated by the CBI. Mondal, however, had to remain in jail as the ED, too, had registered a parallel case against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The probe agencies had accused Mondal of being part of an organised racket that smuggled cattle to Bangladesh through Birbhum and Murshidabad districts.
Mondal was arrested on August 11, 2022, by the CBI in connection with his alleged involvement in a cattle smuggling case. In November of the same year, he was arrested by the ED which primarily found his involvement in the money trails connected to the same case. As the Delhi court granted bail to Mondal, the Birbhum Trinamool Congress leaders celebrated his release from Tihar jail.
Sheikh Kajal, the current chief of Birbhum zilla parishad and Mondal’s main rival in the district, distributed sweets among people on the streets of Bolpur town on Monday.
“I think Anubrata Mondal should be accorded a hero’s welcome. However, as the district is currently under Mamata Banerjee’s supervision, it completely depends on the state leadership,” said Kajal.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had urged the party’s rank and file at a public meeting in September 2022 to give the arrested leader a hero’s welcome when he was granted bail.
After the arrest of Mondal — known as the party strongman in the district — Mamata took charge of the party’s affairs in his absence. Despite he being booked in the cattle smuggling case and being jailed for over two years, Mamata did not replace him with a new district president. Instead, she formed a seven-member core committee to manage the party’s state of affairs in Mondal’s absence.
However, the biggest question in the district’s politics remains whether Mondal will be reinstated as the party’s Birbhum president, as the post has remained vacant.
“We ran the party following his political lines. Now, we are waiting for his return. His chair has been vacant for the past two years, and he will sit on it once again,” said Chandranath Sinha, the state correctional home minister.
Since Mondal’s arrest, Birbhum’s politics have undergone several changes, with the district divided into various factions. Kajal has emerged as a powerful force and many leaders close to Mondal have lost their influence.
“Once Dada returns, he will set things right. He knows exactly what each leader did during his absence,” said a leader close to Mondal.
Sources said Mondal is likely to return to his Bolpur home on Monday, along with his daughter Sukanya Mondal, who was arrested after the central agency questioned her father and granted bail on September 10.
“The party is planning a grand programme to welcome him. It will undoubtedly be a hero’s welcome,” said a Trinamool Congress leader in Birbhum.
Opposition leaders, however, claim there is nothing to celebrate about Mondal’s bail, as it does not prove his innocence in the case.
“We expect Mamata Banerjee to go to Delhi and give Anubrata Mondal a hero’s welcome. We also expect he will be appointed to a bigger post since the Trinamul Congress seems to reward posts according to the level of involvement in crime and corruption,” said CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty.
The Congress’s chief spokesperson in Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy, said Mondal’s bail indicates that many other leaders accused in various cases will eventually be released from jail.