Kolkata: Even after the Calcutta High Court allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal to New Delhi in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, the process hit a snag following the state police refusing to take responsibility of escorting him to the national capital.
As per the high court order, the ED can take Mondal to New Delhi after any central hospital in the state gives a ‘fit’ certificate to him on this count. So accordingly, the ED on Sunday morning mailed the Asansol Special Correctional Home, where Mondal is housed now, asking them to send him to Kolkata so that he can be medically examined at Command Hospital in the city and then taken to New Delhi.
The correctional home authorities contacted the Asansol Police Commissionerate but the latter refused to take responsibility for escorting Mondal first from Asansol to Kolkata and then from Kolkata to New Delhi. The correctional home authorities accordingly informed the ED about the Asansol police’s stand, asking them to themselves take the responsibility of escorting Mondal.
However, the ED, in their counter-reply to the correctional home authorities, said that as per protocol and rules, it is not the responsibility of the central agency but that of the state police to render escort duty in such cases.
As per the latest information, both the correction home and ED authorities have decided to inform a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, which is hearing the matter of the situation and wait for its direction on this count.
ED sources said that as per protocol and rules, it is the responsibility of the state police to escort the accused concerned. “In case of escorting Mondal’s bodyguard Sehgal Hossain to New Delhi last year, the Asansol Police Commissionerate took the responsibility of escorting him. It is beyond our knowledge why they are reluctant to take the same responsibility in case of Mondal this time,” an ED source said.
–IANS
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