Cattle smuggling case: Delhi Court sends TMC's Anubrata Mondal to ED custody till March 10

"TMC leader Anubrata Mondal has been sent to ED custody till March 10," Mudit Jain, lawyer of Anubrata Mondal told ANI.

"We argued that my client is not involved in this case. We do not know anything about the matter. ED said they had to seek Mondal's custody for further investigation. Second, they said they have to see what happened to the trail of the money. ED had sought 14 days custody," Jain told ANI on the phone.

He was taken into custody by the officials of the ED from West Bengal on Tuesday.

He was brought to the ED's office in Delhi later on Tuesday.

ED had sought 14 days of custody but the court gave the date till March 10 only.

The TMC leader was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged involvement in cattle smuggling across the Bangladesh border.

Mondal was arrested by the ED in connection with the case following an interrogation at Asansol jail that lasted more than five hours.

Earlier, on January 24, the Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi dismissed the default bail plea filed on behalf of the TMC leader.

On January 4, the trial court noted that the ED's case is based on the Scheduled Offence (CBI case), the proceedings of which were going on there at the CBI court in Asansol.

The court further noted that some of the accused in the cattle smuggling case were already behind bars.

Mondal was also arrested in July in a related case filed by the CBI. The ED had filed a chargesheet on the basis of the CBI case against Satish Kumar, the then commandant of the Border Security Force (BSF), 36 Battalion, Enamul Haque, Anarul SK, Golam Mustafa and other BSF and Customs officials for alleged commission of a cognisable offence under Section 120B of the IPC and multiple sections of the PC Act, 1988. (ANI)