Anubrata Mondal hospitalised after complaints of chest pain

Kolkata, Nov 20 (IANS) Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal was hospitalised on Sunday following complaints of chest pain, just days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal,

Officials in the state's correctional services said that since Sunday morning, Mondal had complained of a severe cough, congestion, chest pain and mild fever.

After the doctor at the Asansol Special Correctional Home in West Burdwan, where he is currently housed, referred him for further check-up he was taken to the district hospital.

Mondal has been under judicial custody at the Asansol Special Correctional Home since August this year since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is running a parallel probe in the cattle smuggling scam, arrested him for his alleged involvement in the said scam.

Repeated bail applications by his counsel were rejected by the special court of CBI at Asansol since then.

On November 17, the ED sleuths, after a marathon integration for more than five hours within the jail premises, arrested Mondal.

Since he refused to sign the arrest memo, the ED counsel moved the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi for a transit remand to take him to the national capital to question him at the central agency's headquarters.

Now with the new development on Sunday morning after Mondal's hospitalization uncertainties have started shrouding over the entire process initiated by ED to take him to New Delhi.

However, sources said that ED sleuths are keeping a close watch over the entire development and consulting their legal brains on the probable future course of actions.

Senior BJP leader and the party's former national secretary, Rahul Sinha said that if Mondal is genuinely sick, he will undergo treatment.

"But if this sickness is meant to avoid going to New Delhi, he will not be able to escape that after a point of time," he said.