ED arrests TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s daughter Sukanya on money laundering charges

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s daughter Sukanya Mondal on money laundering charges in connection with the cattle smuggling case.

Sukanya, a primary school teacher appointed by the state government in 2011 when the TMC first came to power, has been interrogated by the ED a few times in the past as well.

Sukanya is the director of two companies and owns a rice mill in Birbhum’s Bolpur town where the Mondals live. She had earlier appeared before ED officers for interrogation related to some fictitious transactions made through the accounts of two companies where she was named as director.

“Law will take its own course. TMC will not defend anyone. Sukanya has recently lost her mother and her father is now in jail. Couldn’t she have been interrogated at home? Was her arrest a political vendetta just because her father is a TMC leader?” Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson, told the media.

West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said the arrest was imminent and alleged involvement of several people in the case.

“This was bound to happen. As per the information I received, she has been arrested by ED from Birbhum. The agency will come to know about the property found in her name. I think in the time to come, everything will come out in the open. I think several other names will also come to light in cattle smuggling and coal smuggling cases. It can’t be the deed by just 1-2 people. Several TMC leaders are involved in the ‘coal corridor’ and ‘cattle corridor’ through which smuggling used to happen,” Majumdar said, as quoted buy ANI.

Abubrata Mondal was earlier arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as ED in the cattle smuggling case. The TMC leader was kept at the Asansol correctional facility till March 7 before he was flown to the national capital on orders of a Delhi court in an ED case. He is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

CBI officials allege that Mondal was linked to 168 land and property deeds executed in or after 2014. At least two dozen of these properties belong to him, the federal agency alleges, while the remaining 144 properties are in the names of his relatives, aides and their kin.