The ED has arrested the chartered accountant of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal in connection with its probe into the alleged cattle smuggling scam, an official of the central agency said on Wednesday.

Manish Kothari was arrested after around seven hours of grilling by Enforcement Directorate officers at their city office late on Tuesday evening after he allegedly "non-cooperated" with them, he said.

"He has not been cooperating with us and in a way tried to divert the investigation. He has been arrested and will be questioned further," the official said.

The officials said the ED wants to question Kothari and Mondal, who is the Birbhum Trinamool Congress president together as a part of their investigation.

"Questioning both Mondal and his CA together will definitely help us in the investigation. This person has played a key role in the scam," he added.

The TMC leader was arrested by the ED in November last year. He was taken into custody by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case in August 2022. The ED after getting custody of Mondal took him to New Delhi to probe into the scam.

He is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.