A court in Birbhum’s Dubrajpur on Tuesday granted bail to Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal in connection with the attempt-to-murder case after he was produced before the court after the stipulated seven days in police custody.

“The court granted bail to Anubrata Mondal rejecting the police’s plea to keep him in remand for another seven days in the attempt-to-murder case. The court ordered his production on February 24,” said an advocate of Dubrajpur court.

Anubrata was sent back to Asansol jail on Tuesday from where he was taken out on December 20 following a production warrant by Dubrajpur court that later sent the leader to police custody for seven days in response to a plea from the Birbhum police.

Last week’s development invited fresh controversy as Opposition parties questioned if efforts to take Anubrata in custody in the attempt-to-murder case were to save him from going to Delhi to face interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate.

The attempt-to-murder complaint was lodged by a former Trinamul panchayat chief Shibthakur Mondal on December 19, the day Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court granted permission to the ED to bring Anubrata there.

BJP MLA from Dubrajpur Anup Saha said although Trinamul and police were trying to save Anubrata from going to Delhi, they would not succeed for long.

The ED has already sought certified copies of Dubrajpur court orders in a bid to move the Supreme Court against the case filed by Birbhum police that helped Anubrata skip going to Delhi.

Sources said that the ED can’t take him to Delhi right now.

“The Enforcement Directorate on December 21 gave a verbal assurance to Delhi High Court that it would not execute till January 9 the production warrant issued against Anubrata by a Delhi court for interrogation in the cattle smuggling case. So, Anubrata has legal relief till January 9 when Delhi High Court hears his plea,” said Trinamul leader and advocate Malay Mukherjee.

However, a lawyer representing the ED said that the situation might change if the ED gets a favourable order from the Supreme Court meanwhile.

Bihar cop held with fake notes

Siliguri: A constable of Bihar Military Police was arrested in Kishanganj with fake Indian currency notes on Monday in a joint operation by Bihar police and the Border Security Force (north Bengal frontier).

Constable Pappu Kumar, originally from Muzaffarpur, and his aide Chandrashekhar Singh, were nabbed with 20 bundles of fake Rs 200 notes and 10 bundles of fake Rs 500 notes on them.

Pappu and Chandrashekhar also had on them some currency notes of Nepal and some genuine Indian currency notes of Rs 200 and Rs 500.

Their bike and Pappu’s identity card were seized.

The duo, sources said, were allegedly supposed to hand over the fake notes to a person in Kishanganj.

OUR CORRESPONDENT