Cattle smuggling case: ED to question officials of lottery firm: Jail term of Anubrata Mondal extended

 Quiz to understand the business model, including funding pattern, distribution of tickets in different states and its turnovers in the past few years

The officials said the questioning would likely be held at the ED headquarters in Delhi sometime next week.:Representational picture

Kinsuk Basu, Abhijeet Chatterjee   |   TT  |  Calcutta, Durgapur   |  12.11.22 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing into the money trail in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case has decided to question senior functionaries of a lottery company after it emerged that the jailed Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal had bagged a prize of Rs one crore after winning the jackpot.

Senior ED officials said they were planning to quiz the lottery company’s directors to understand the business model, including funding pattern, distribution of tickets in different states and its turnovers in the past few years. 

The officials said the questioning would likely be held at the ED headquarters in Delhi sometime next week.   Apart from the Birbhum Trinamul president, the wife of a Trinamul MLA in Calcutta also won Rs one crore from the lottery firm.

While Anubrata won the first prize in January, she bagged it in October.

“We would like to get clarifications on some of the findings that we have picked up from the company’s audited results and understand the business model,” said a senior official. 

Jail term extended

The CBI court in Asansol on Friday extended the judicial custody of Anubrata Mondal by another fortnight.