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by IANS |
Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) A number of officials of the customs department have come under Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s scanner in connection with the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in West Bengal.
Sources said that during the last couple of days, the central agency sleuths have questioned two officials on this count, while as many others have been summoned next week.
It is learnt that the customs officials in question had been posted at the Indo- Bangladesh borders at Murshidabad district of West Bengal when cattle smuggling through that border was at its peak.
Customs is the second central government department after Border Security Force (BSF) that has come under the scanner of central investigation agencies like CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the scam. Earlier, CBI even arrested BSF commandant Satish Kumar in the course of the agency's on-going probe in the scam.
Recently, the ED had submitted its charge sheet in this matter where it had mentioned about the involvement of the BSF officials in the alleged scam.
In the charge sheet, the central investigation agency has detailed on how the cattle were smuggled from a cattle-trading hub at Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum district, taken to the borders of the adjacent Murshidabad district and subsequently sent out of the border in connivance with a section of the BSF officials posted there.
Notably, Trinamool Congress strongman and the party's Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal is currently serving judicial custody at Tihar jail in New Delhi in connection to his alleged involvement in the cattle smuggling. His daughter Sukanya Mondal, personal chartered accounts Manish Kothari and bodyguard Sehgal Hossain are also in the same jail.
