Bengal coal-cattle scams: CBI gets clues about Sehgal Hossain's money trail

Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing the coal and cattle smuggling cases in West Bengal have got crucial links about the trail of money transfer by Trinamool Congress strongman, Anubrata Mandal's bodyguard, Sehgal Hossain.

Hossain, a constable of West Bengal police, is currently under the custody of CBI, whose sleuths have already come across huge assets owned by Hossain in forms of several residential apartments, resorts, gold and cash amounting to crores of rupees.

Now through interrogations of Hossain and some of his associates and from the different documents seized, the CBI has come across clues that Hossain acted as the principal agent for transferring the proceeds from the coal and cattle smuggling to different beneficiaries in this illegal trade.

In return, he received a percentage of the transferred money as commission from both the receivers and the senders. A highly placed CBI official, who did not wish to be named, said the investigating officials have also come across names of 14 individuals who were involved in money transfer operated by Hossian.

He added that six of these 14 individuals are influential local Trinamool Congress leaders from different pockets in Birbhum district, where Anubrata Mandal is the district president of the party. Even some lower-level police personnel and officers in the ranks of constables, assistant sub-inspectors and sub-inspectors are also under the scanner of the CBI, who are believed to be beneficiaries from this illegal trade.

Currently, two parallel CBI enquiries are going on against Anubrata Mandal. The first is on the cattle and coal smuggling case, where Enforcement Directorate (ED) is too conducting a parallel enquiry to track the money trail angle. The second CBI enquiry against Mandal is relating to the latter's purported involvement in the post-poll violence in West Bengal.

Already Mandal has faced two rounds of enquiry in the cattle and coal smuggling case and one round in the post-poll violence case.