Cattle smuggling: CBI court asks ED to take TMC leader to Delhi by air after med examination

A special CBI court in Asansol on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal to Delhi by air for questioning, in accordance with an order of the Calcutta High Court.

The special court judge also asked the Asansol correctional home authority to hold medical examination of Mondal at the earliest, in coordination with the Asansol Durgapur commissioner of police, keeping his security aspect in mind.

The court said that Mondal will be taken to Delhi by air, after jail authorities hand him over to the probe agency, following his medical examination at a central government facility in Kolkata.

The ED was directed to produce the TMC Birbhum district president before the special CBI judge at Rouse Avenue court in Delhi for further investigation into a PMLA case for his alleged complicity in a cattle smuggling case. A medical officer will be accompanying the TMC leader to the national capital.

The court took note of a letter by the jail authority which said that both the Asansol Durgapur police commissionerate, which was approached for transferring Mondal to Delhi with required security cover, and the ED have asked it to comply with a warrant issued for producing Mondal before the Delhi court.

The high court had in its order said, “It is made clear that if the ED takes the petitioner to Delhi in execution of the production warrant, considering the health of the petitioner, it is directed that he be taken to Delhi by air.” Justice Bibek Chaudhuri had on Saturday further said that medical officers posted in a central government hospital in Kolkata in the department of general medicine, cardiology and general surgery will examine Mondal and issue a certificate stating the condition of his health before he is handed over to the ED.

“A medical officer shall accompany the petitioner to Delhi and he will be examined by the doctors immediately after his arrival in Delhi,” he directed.

The high court, while dismissing a petition by Mondal challenging the Asansol court order for producing him before the CBI judge at Rouse Avenue court, had given these conditions for taking the TMC leader to the national capital.

The Asansol court judge, during the day, said that it is clear from the high court order that jail authorities, before handing Mondal over to the ED, will have him examined medically.

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