Kolkata: After the West Bengal Police got the custody of Trinamool Congress’s strongman and the party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is apprehending that more old cases will be revived.
The old cases can prevent the ED from taking Mondal to Delhi to question him there in connection with the multi- crore cattle smuggling scam in the state.
The ED’s attempts to take Mondal to New Delhi, armed with the production warrant approved by the Rouse Avenue Court on Monday (December 19), received a jolt as a Birbhum court sent him to seven-day judicial custody in an attempt to murder case, which happened in 2021 and the FIR was filed on Monday evening only.
ED sources said that once the police custody in the present case is over, judicial custody will begin opening avenues for the central agency for making fresh remand pleas. However, sources said that their legal brains are not ruling out the possibilities of more old cases being revived so that Mondal’s tenure in subsequent police custodies is prolonged giving him time to approach multiple legal avenues to prevent the ED from taking him to the national capital.
Senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Kaushik Gupta said that this revival of multiple old cases is surely a possibility that can surface to prevent the ED from taking the accused to New Delhi. “However, again I am saying that such techniques can postpone the process for a period but cannot prevent it forever, considering the multiple layers of the judicial system in our country. Just as Mondal is tapping multiple legal avenues, I am sure that the counsels for ED are also doing the same,” Gupta said.
As ED is concerned the next seven days starting from Wednesday till December 27 is extremely crucial in the matter. On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court is supposed to hear the plea from Mondal seeking the quashing of the production warrant approved by the Rouse Avenue Court.
On December 23, the Calcutta High Court will hear the plea for bail from Mondal in relation to the cattle- smuggling case. On December 27, the current police custody of Mondal will end and it is to be seen whether the lower court in Birbhum will extend his police custody or remand him to judicial custody.
–IANS