The CBI on Saturday questioned Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal in connection with a Rs 1 crore lottery that he purportedly won in January. Sources in the agency said the CBI wanted to know whether Anubrata had actually purchased the ticket that fetched the first prize of Rs 1 crore and if so, how he utilised the money.

A CBI team reached the correctional home in Asansol where Anubrata is lodged early on Saturday and questioned him for over one-and-a-half hours. The sleuths had with them the statements of the ticket seller and the owner of the wholesale agency selling lottery tickets in Birbhum.

“We wanted to cross-check his statements with those of the ticket seller and the others whom we have examined,” said a senior CBI officer.

On Friday, CBI officers had questioned Shiekh Ainul, who runs a lottery agency in Bolpur, to ascertain whether he had sold the ticket that fetched the prize. Based on Ainul’s statements, officers questioned a ticket seller from a village 15km from Bolpur to ascertain whether Anubrata had purchased the ticket from him.

The seller apparently told the CBI that he doesn’t recall selling any lottery ticket to Anubrata. The lottery company’s website, however, mentions Anubrata as the winner of the first prize.

“It is vital to know whose lottery ticket was it, who won the first prize and how did it reach Anubrata,” the CBI officer said. “At different levels, money had changed hands and he was at the centre of all these transactions.”