The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday summoned Abdul Latif, believed to be a close aide of arrested Trinamul strongman Anubrata Mondal, to Delhi next week for questioning in the muti-crore cattle-smuggling scam.

The summons came soon after Latif came in the news for accompanying hotelier Raju Jha with alleged links to coal smuggling last Saturday when he was murdered at Shaktigarh in East Burdwan.

Sources said that according to CBI records, Latif has been on the run ever since his name was in the chargesheet in a cattle smuggling case. The chargesheet was filed after Mondal was arrested in the case last August.

Since the CBI declared him an absconder, Latif was noticed first in CCTV footage related to Jha's murder. The clip purportedly showed him speaking on the phone shortly before the assailants gunned down Jha.

Police sources said Saturday's video footage collected from CCTVs at Jha's hotel in Durgapur showed Latif entering the hotel with Jha's aide Bratin Mukherjee. Another clip showed the trio coming out of the hotel.

Employees of Jha's hotel told the police that Latif, Jha and Mukherjee held a three-hour meeting at the hotel before leaving for Calcutta in the SUV on Saturday. The evening before, Latif attended Jha's party at the hotel. The employees said Latif would stay at Jha's hotel for long spells ever since the CBI named him in the chargesheet.

The police said Jha's killers used a stolen car that originally belonged to a Gurgaon resident. It was stolen from Delhi's Janakpuri in January.