9 days before deadline ends for CBI appearance, Anubrata Mandal in hospital again

Kolkata, May 12 (IANS) With just nine days left for his appearance before the CBI on May 21, for interrogation in the cattle and coal smuggling cases, Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mandal was hospitalised again on Thursday.

He was admitted to a private hospital near Eastern Metropolitan after he complained of chest pain. After reaching the hospital premises, Mandal made a failed attempt to enter the building on foot. But later, he was taken in a wheelchair.

Mandal's associates said that he had been feeling uneasy since Wednesday night and his physicians were immediately contacted, who did not want to take any risk and decided to hospitalise him. It is learnt that throughout the day Mandal will be undergoing several rounds of check-ups before the doctors decide over his next course of treatment.

A top CBI official said on condition of anonymity that although no communication was made to the agency either by Mandal or his counsel regarding it, "but we are aware of everything and are also keeping a close watch on the entire development. We are also updating our senior officers at the CBI directorate in New Delhi and waiting for their instructions", he said.

On April 22, Mandal, the Trinamool Congress district president in Birbhum, returned to his Chinar Park residence in Kolkata after being discharged from the state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital. On April 23, he forwarded a communication to CBI stating his inability to appear for the central agency questioning before May 21. In support of his claims, Mandal attached a medical prescription from the medical board of SSKM Medical College & Hospital authorities, which advised him four weeks of complete bed rest.

In the wake of his fresh hospitalisation, now the ball is in the court of CBI, which is already facing questions on its sleuths giving a long rope to Mandal.