Special court of CBI allows transfer of multi-crore cattle smuggling case to the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi

 Asansol CBI special court grants permission

Anubrata Mondal brought to a Calcutta hospital for treatment while in custody: File picture

Abhijeet Chatterjee, TT, Durgapur, 07.09.23 : A special court of the CBI in Asansol on Wednesday allowed the application of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to transfer the multi-crore cattle smuggling case to the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi after three consecutive hearings on this matter since July.

The ED on July 28 had applied for transferring the case to Delhi according to provisions under Section 44(1)(c) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for transferring to Delhi the cattle smuggling case being probed by the central agency on economic offenses.

After three rounds of hearing, the Asansol court ordered the transfer of all records related to the cattle smuggling case to the Rouse Avenue court by September 11.

However, Somnath Chattaraj, the lawyer of Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal who had been arrested by the CBI in the case in August last year and is now lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail, said that they would move a higher court against the order after going through it properly.

"We always have the provision to move a higher court and we will do it after going through the two-page order in detail," Chattaraj said.

The ED is carrying out its parallel investigation in the cattle smuggling case that is also being probed by another central agency, the CBI.

The CBI has already arrested a BSF official Satish Kumar, Anubrata's bodyguard Saigal Hossain, his chartered accountant Manish Kothari and the Trinamul leader's daughter and schoolteacher Sukanya Mondal in this case as of now.

Among them, currently only Satish Kumar is out on bail, while the rest are now lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.

Although judge Rajesh Chakraborty of the CBI special court in Asansol was initially reluctant to approve the ED's move to shift the case to Delhi, on Wednesday he accepted the plea on the basis of a gazette notification of the Union finance ministry issued way back in 2005.

The notification empowered the ED to seek the shifting of cases to a court in the city of its headquarters.

Asked about the legality of the Asansol court's decision, advocate Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee, who is a criminal law expert of Calcutta High Court, said: "State courts cannot take a decision on the interstate transfer of hearing of a case. Only the Supreme Court has the authority to order interstate transfer of any case."

"However, the ED, by submitting a 2005 notification before the subordinate court, claimed that since their head office is in Delhi, the case may be transferred to Delhi for the sake of a fair investigation. The subordinate court has accepted the ED's plea but Anubrata Mondal can always challenge the order in the Supreme Court," Chatterjee said.

However, till that eventuality, the case will now be heard in the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi.