Cattle smuggling PMLA case: Delhi HC lists bail plea of Sukanya Mondal for hearing on Monday

New Delhi [India], July 4 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Thursday listed the bail plea of Sukanya Mondal for hearing on Monday.

She was arrested in a money laundering case connected with a multi-crore cattle smuggling operation.

Sukanya was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 26, 2023. Since then, she has been in custody. Her regular bail plea was dismissed by the trial court on June 1, 2023. Thereafter, she approached the High Court to seek bail.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna listed the matter for hearing on Monday at 3 p.m. Her bail plea has been pending for a long time.

Recently, the apex court passed a direction to decide the bail application within three weeks after the reopening of the High Court.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa appeared for Sukanya Mondal. He submitted that she was arrested in April 2023, and since then, she has been in custody. The Enforcement Directorate has already filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against her.

He also apprised the court about the Supreme Court’s order.

Earlier, before the trial court, Sukanya’s counsel, Advocate Amit Kumar, had argued that she should be granted bail in parity with another accused, Tanya Sanyal, who was not arrested, and a charge sheet was filed without arrest.

He had also submitted that Tanya is the wife of BSF commandant Satish Kumar, who is also one of the accused. Allegations against Tanya are that she received bribe money for cattle smuggling from Enamul Haque and laundered the same.

Despite being accused in both the CBI and ED cases, Tanya was granted regular bail. Her bail was not opposed by the ED, the counsel had argued.

The ED, through a Special Public Prosecutor (SPP), had submitted incriminating material against the accused. A charge sheet has been filed suggesting Sukanya should not be enlarged on bail. The bail application may be dismissed.

The SPP argued that this is an issue of national security and a matter of the country’s economy.

He also argued that Anubrata Mondal, the father of the applicant, is an uneducated person, and his whole business activities were taken care of by the applicant.

Her father is a TMC leader and is in custody in this case.

It is also alleged that the accused is a teacher in the West Bengal government. She is actively involved in business activities as per data collected so far. The total cash proceeds of the crime were deposited in her multiple bank accounts, and her business entities are worth several crores.

Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress party’s president of Birbhum district, is said to be a close aide of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. He was earlier arrested by the CBI in the same case in July 2022.

The ED arrested him in the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam after questioning him at the Asansol jail, where he was lodged in 2022.

The court also noted that the ED’s case, which is based on the Scheduled Offence, is still ongoing at the CBI Court of Asansol in West Bengal.

Several accused have been taken into judicial custody so far by the CBI.