First in 20 years, no bhog for devotees at Anubrata’s ancestral Durga Puja

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For the first time since the past 20 years, there will be no daily bhog distribution in the Durga Puja of the ancestral house of Anubrata Mondal in Hatserandi village due to severe financial crunch.

Recently, Anubrata Mondal and his daughter Sukanya Mondal have returned to his Nichupatti House in Bolpur town after getting bail in the ED case on cross border cattle smuggling.

Both have earlier managed to secure bail in the CBI case.

Anubrata Mondal has been in Tihar jail since 2022 and his daughter since 2023. Yesterday, Anubrata visited his party office for the first time in two years and said that he will sit there daily for three hours.

Today, Anubrata Mondal visited his ancestral house along with his daughter Sukanya and inspected preparations for the puja in the temple inside the house.

“Every year, we used to distribute khichdi and pulao bhog to over 4,000 villagers daily inside the complex, but this year due to severe financial crisis, the bhog distribution has been cancelled. I will stay here and enjoy the Durga Puja along with my relatives and fellow villagers,” said Anubrata.

The temple complex has received a fresh coat and a police picket is posted in the house by Birbhum police. He said that he will soon visit Kolkata for treatment for his leg pain. The Birbhum leader has shed weight drastically and looks slim. It is believed that during his Kolkata visit he may meet the TMC chairperson.

Both the CBI and the ED has attached the properties, bank accounts and sealed the rice mills of Anubrata Mondal and Sukanya Mondal in connection with the cross-border cattle smuggling case. Also Anubrata had to pay a huge amount for getting bail for him and his daughter in ED and CBI cases to lawyers.

Praising the core committee members for the excellent results in the panchayat and Lok Sabha polls he said that the Trinamul Congress is a team in Birbhum district and all obey Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee as their leaders