A court in New Delhi on Thursday remanded Trinamul Congress heavyweight Anubrata Mondal's daughter Sukanya in the Enforcement Directorate's custody for three days, a day after she had been arrested in a cattle-smuggling case.

A lawyer representing the ED told the Rouse Avenue court that investigation officers would like to question Sukanya in custody about the source of her income revealed from some of her bank accounts, the exact modus operandi of allegedly receiving kickbacks from the cattle trade and where the "proceeds of crime" were parked.

Sukanya's lawyers argued that there was no pressing need for her arrest and pleaded for bail. After hearing both the sides, the court sent Sukanya to the ED's custody till Saturday.

Unlike the usual request for a fortnight's custody, the central agency pleaded for three days of Sukanya's remand while telling the court that it was crucial to find out her exact role in the alleged handling of the money as underlined by several witnesses in their statements before the ED during interrogation.

Senior ED officials said they had traced a few crores of rupees to Sukanya's two bank accounts at Salt Lake and at Bolpur in Birbhum district. Land deeds show Sukanya brought properties worth close to Rs 12 crore between 2015 and 2022, officials said.

"We would like to know from Sukanya about two things — how the money was allegedly laundered and where it was invested," said a senior ED official.

"We might even seek the court's permission to bring Anubrata from judicial custody for a face-to-face interrogation of the father and the daughter. But we have not yet firmed up on this," the official said.

The ED — which is probing into the alleged money trail of the cattle smuggling — had arrested Sukanya, a primary school teacher in Birbhum district, on Wednesday evening after questioning her for a little over six hours at its headquarters in Delhi.

Anubrata appeal

Anubrata Mondal on Thursday pleaded with a court in Asansol for his bail, saying the CBI had slapped a false case on him and he was not keeping well.

Appearing virtually from Tihar jail, where he is currently lodged, the Trinamul heavyweight from Birbhum requested that he be taken back to the prison in Asansol, where he was lodged following the arrest by the CBI in August last year.

The court asked Mondal to inform the superintendent of the Tihar jail about his ailments and fixed the next hearing on May 11.