The CBI on Tuesday interrogated Anubrata Mondal and his former bodyguard Saigal Hossain separately at the Asansol correctional home for an hour on the cattle smuggling case.

Mondal, who is the president of Trinamul’s Birbhum district unit, and Hossain, reportedly close to him for years, had been arrested by the central agency for their alleged involvement in the cattle smuggling case and are lodged in judicial custody.

Sources said the CBI sleuths reached the Asansol correctional home around 11pm.

The officers first interrogated Hossain for an hour in a separate room and later questioned Mondal in his cell.

CBI sources said that Mondal did not cooperate with the investigating officers and avoided answering most of the questions.

After the interrogation, one of the CBI officers told the mediapersons in the afternoon in Asansol that Mondal “did not cooperate”.

The sleuths did not reply to queries on whether his former bodyguard had proved more cooperative.

The special court of the central agency had allowed the CBI to interrogate Mondal only once during his fortnight-long judicial custody.

The court had sent Mondal to 14 days’ judicial custody on August 24.

Earlier he was remanded in CBI custody by the court since his arrest on August 11. His judicial custody will end on September 1 and he will be produced in court again.

In another development, Asansol district judge's court on Tuesday remanded advocate Sudipto Roy, who was arrested on Monday for allegedly sending a letter to CBI judge Rajesh Chakraborty with the threat to frame his family members in a narcotics case if Mondal was not released on bail, to 10 days in police custody.

Roy, who practises in the Burdwan district judge’s court, is a resident of the town.

No lawyer represented Roy at the Asansol district judge's court on Tuesday.

Coal scam case

The special court of the CBI on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of the eight present and retired ECL officials arrested by the CBI in connection with the coal-smuggling scam by another fortnight. They will be produced again on September 13.

Covid cases

Bengal on Tuesday reported 154 Covid-19 infections, 308 recoveries and one death.

According to a state government bulletin, Bengal has at present 2,561 active patients — 2,444 in home isolation and 117 at hospitals.

The positive recovery rate was 98.86 per cent and mortality rate 1.02 per cent on Tuesday. On a day 8,347 samples were tested, the positivity rate was 1.84 per cent.