Kolkata, May 24 (). Several officials of the Customs Department have come under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in West Bengal. Sources said that during the last few days, the central agency officials have questioned two officials in the matter, while several others have been summoned over the next week.
It has been learned that when customs officials were posted at the India-Bangladesh border in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, cattle smuggling through that border was at its peak.
Customs is the second central government department after the Border Security Force (BSF) to come under the scanner of central investigative agencies like the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the scam. Earlier, the CBI had also arrested BSF Commandant Satish Kumar during the ongoing investigation in the scam.
Recently, the ED had filed a charge sheet in this case, mentioning the involvement of BSF officers in the alleged scam.
In the chargesheet, the central probe agency has explained how the cattle were smuggled from a cattle-trading center at Mohd Bazar in Birbhum district, taken to the borders of neighboring Murshidabad district and later taken out of the border in connivance with a Has been sent. A section of BSF officers is stationed there.
Notably, Trinamool Congress stalwart and party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal is currently in judicial custody in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for his alleged involvement in cattle smuggling. His daughter Sukanya Mandal, personal chartered account Manish Kothari and bodyguard Sehgal Hussain are also in the same jail.
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