ED plea for copies of orders on Anubrata Mondal

We have filed an application for certified copies of the orders related to this case: ED's lawyer

Anubrata Mondal.: File picture

Snehamoy Chakraborty   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |    23.12.22  : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) made an application before a court in Dubrajpur on Thursday for certified copies of its production warrant issued against Trinamul Congress leader Anubrata Mondal in an attempt-to-murder case and the subsequent order for his remand in police custody.

The move is being seen as the ED’s attempt to assess the legal hurdles to the efforts to get Mondal in its custody and take him to Delhi for questioning in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case.

On Monday, a former Trinamul gram panchayat chief had lodged a complaint against Mondal, accusing him of trying to throttle him to death in the party office ahead of the Assembly polls in 2021.

“We have filed an application for certified copies of the orders related to this case. The matter is supposed to be heard on Friday,” said Tapan Sahana, the lawyer representing the ED.

Following the complaint of the attempt to murder, the court at Dubrajpur in Birbhum district on Monday ordered that Mondal be brought from the Asansol correctional home — where he had been lodged since the last week of August after the CBI had arrested him in the cattle smuggling case — for interrogation.

When Mondal was produced in the court on Tuesday, he was sent to police custody for seven days.

The ED has sought the copies of these two orders.

A source in the Birbhum police said the ED had no right to seek these documents. He added that certified copies of an order were only issued to the parties of the case.

“I will question on what grounds the ED sought these documents,” said Malay Mukherjee, Mondal’s lawyer and the public prosecutor at the Dubrajpur court.

ED sources believe that the attempt-to-murder case has been fabricated to prevent Mondal from being taken to the national capital.

“If we get hold of the order, it will help us prove that Mondal is a very influential person who can twist the law for his benefit,” an ED source said.

On Thursday, the police recorded the statement of the complainant  in the attempt-to-murder case in court.