Cattle smuggling case: HC allows ED to take TMC leader to Delhi for questioning

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court in a special sitting on Saturday gave the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the go-ahead to take Trinamool Birbhum unit's president Anubrata Mandal to Delhi in connection with the cattle smuggling investigation.
A production warrant for the TMC heavyweight was earlier issued by the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi. Calling Mandal's move to approach several courts on the same matter an instance of "forum shopping", Justice Bibek Chaudhuri of the Calcutta HC imposed an "exemplary cost" of Rs 1 lakh on him to "nip the practice in the bud".
"When the petitioner failed to obtain any relief in the Delhi HC, he chose to move the instant application today... Successive applications filed by the petitioner in different courts for obtaining favourable orders are undoubtedly a clear instance of forum shopping," Justice Chaudhuri observed.
Mandal's counsel, Kishor Dutta, pleaded that the ED had given oral assurance to the Delhi HC that it would not execute the production warrant till January 9.
The high court refused to take cognisance of such "oral assurance" because it was not recorded during the hearing. It also noted that the Delhi high court didn't stay the production warrant.