The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Trinamul’s Birbhum president Anubrata Mondal on Thursday after a team of officers questioned him for over five hours at the Asansol correctional home where he is lodged.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Mondal on August 11 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in Bengal.

Senior ED officials said Mondal was arrested for allegedly laundering several crores in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case and has been booked under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The central agency is likely to seek Mondal’s production before the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi on Friday although he refused to sign on the arrest memo, sources said.

ED officers reached the correctional home on the outskirts of Asansol around 11.30 am and began quizzing Mondal after taking clearances from the superintendent.

Earlier the agency had arrested Saigal Hossain, Mondal’s bodyguard, after questioning him at the same Asansol correctional home. Hossain is now in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

The ED’s move on Thursday came within weeks of questioning Mondal’s daughter Sukanya, Bolpur businessman Rajib Bhattacharya and Mondal’s chartered accountant Manish Kothari.

“We want to verify statements of the three (Sukanya, Bhattacharya and Kothari) after taking him (Mondal) in custody,” said an ED officer, adding that “clear leads” on money laundering came up on questioning the trio.