Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the money-trail angle in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in West Bengal, on Monday summoned the mother and wife of Sehgal Hossain, the former bodyguard of tainted Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal.
Both of them have been asked to be present at ED headquarters in the national capital within this week.
According to ED sources, a part of the proceeds of the crime that Hossain received was transferred in the names of his mother and wife necessitating the questioning of the two.
Those properties were mainly transferred before his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths and ED officials suspect that this transfer was done deliberately by him, understanding that his arrest was inevitable. Both Hossain and Mondal are currently under judicial custody.
Recently, the ED also wanted to take Sehgal Hossain to New Delhi and question him there. However, the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi rejected the plea saying that since Hossain was under judicial custody at a correctional home in West Bengal and not Delhi, his questioning will also have to be conducted in West Bengal only.
The sources said that the properties in the name of Sehgal Hossain’s mother are mainly in his native district of Murshidabad as well as in Birbhum, where Mondal is Trinamool Congress district president. Now, it is to be seen whether they rush to New Delhi and face the central agency questioning there or approach a court challenging this summons.
(IANS)
