Anubrata Mondal guard collected cash, BSF gave easy passage: ED

KOLKATA: Enforcement Directorate has placed before the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi the recorded statement of Anubrata Mondal's former security guard Saigal Hossain, in support of its claim that the latter collected "protection money" from cattle smugglers on behalf of the Trinamool Birbhum president.
Hossain's statement forms part of the 203-page supplementary charge sheet the agency submitted to the court on Thursday.
ED has also annexed Hossain's call records to various persons, claiming that Mondal had used his former security guard's cellphone to speak to other "influential" people. The agency claimed that Mondal had amassed no less than Rs 48 crore from the alleged racket.
The charge sheet also points to a section of BSF officers who eased the passage of cattle-laden trucks to several points in Murshidabad along the border, before they were handed over to people who herded the animals to Bangladesh.
Investigators elaborated on the modus operandi of smuggling through the Birbhum corridor. According to ED, heads of cattle aggregated at an undervalued price by Abdul Latif were taken by truck to key operator Enamul Haq's Murshidabad office, where Shiekh Anwar received them.
The passage of trucks through several outposts in between, such as Nimtita, was allowed only after the driver produced a "paper token" issued by the cattle syndicate. Some BSF officials then helped cattle herdsmen cross the border between 11pm and 3am. Former BSF commandant Satish Kumar was arrested in this regard in April last year.
ED claimed in the charge sheet that Mondal used his influence to make the passage smooth, and Hossain took protection money on his behalf.
In support of its claim that the Trinamool leader was still "influential", investigators referred to two incidents - Mondal's breakfast with his daughter Sukanya's driver at Shaktigarh while on his way to Delhi under police protection, and a Dubrajpur case that was initiated two years after the incident to allegedly keep the accused in a Bengal jail when ED wanted to take him to Delhi.
ED in its charge sheet also named Sukanya and Mondal's chartered accountant Manish Kothari. While recording Sukanya's assets, the supplementary charge sheet quoted her earlier statement to investigators that she had opened bank accounts and signed documents of ANM Agrochem Foods and Neer Developers on the instructions of her father.