The CBI today conducted raids at a rice mill allegedly owned by kin of the arrested Trinamul Congress Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal and was learnt to have confiscated some incriminating documents relating to the alleged ownership and amount of the share capital of the said mill that is under the cattle smuggling cloud and was said to have been acquired by Trinamul strongman after 2011.
A team of CBI officers, who went to Bhole Bum rice mill in Bolpur, Birbhum early this morning, in which his daughter Sukanya and another family member has joint stake, conducted raids for more than six hours after an early hiccup when the team was allegedly held up for 40 minutes.
The security personnel of the mill attributed the alleged delay to “nonavailability of keys” required to unlock the gate. Once they were in, the officers were surprised to find a series of luxury cars under the car shed there Of these, one had a government of West Bengal sticker on it. Most of the cars, claimed the source, were often used by the Trinamul heavyweight leader, and are not allegedly owned by him.
Sources said, several cars in the garage on the mill compound had their ownership allegedly found to be in others’ names and acquisitions were reportedly made through dubious means.
The source however, attributed today’s raid at the rice mill by the CBI to unearth the source of such a sprawling property and if the alleged acquisition of the property was through the proceeds of cattle smuggling crime. ED sources said that the rice mill stretches over an area of 14 acres of land.
It was purchased in the name of Sukanya Mondal in 2013 for Rs 5 crore as per records. However, the production process at the rice mill was currently closed. The sources said that the purchase price quoted was abysmally low considering the huge plot of land the price of which could exceed Rs 5 crore. ”
We are trying to contact the original owner from whom this rice mill was purchased and trying to know whether his decision to sell the rice mill at this abysmally low price was because of any kind of pressure,” the central agency official added.
Two companies with Sukanya Mondal as one of the two directors are also under the scanner of the central agencies. The CBI had yesterday frozen a fixed deposit account of RS 17cr at a nationalized bank in Bolpur.