Supreme Court grants bail to TMC leader Anubrata Mondal in cattle smuggling case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal in a case related to cattle smuggling across India-Bangladesh border [Anubrata Mondal @ Kesto vs The Central Bureau of Investigation]..A Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma granted the bail to Mondal subject to conditions like surrender of passport. It also said he will cooperate during the trial and not influence witnesses. .The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Mondal challenging the Calcutta High Court's refusal to grant him bail.Mondal was arrested on August 11, 2022, in connection with a case filed against him for allegedly smuggling cattle to Bangladesh by bribing Border Security Force (BSF) personnel.The top court had in September last year sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter. During the hearing of the case in December last year, the Court had asked the CBI to hand over a copy of the chargesheet in the case to Mondal. .Today, Mondal told the top court that he had not been provided English version of the chargesheet, which he said was in Bengali."You are Bengali. You translate," Justice Trivedi said on the allegation.In response, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi - who represented Mondal said, "No. This is a mockery of justice. I am in jail for 2 years, how can I? Chargesheet is over 1 lakh pages, more than 10,000 pages are in Bengali."At this stage, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the CBI, submitted that not everything in the chargesheet is Bengali. .On his prayer for bail, Rohatgi argued that co-accused have been granted bail. When the Court said that Mondal was kingpin and influential, the senior counsel said,"No. Kingpin has been granted bail. And what is the consideration for bail here ..."Though the CBI opposed the bail, the Court said it was inclined to release the TMC leader with strict conditions. It then proceeded to grant bail to him..Besides Senior Counsel Rohatgi, Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal with Advocates Lzafeer Ahmad and Ahmad Ibrahim appeared for Mondal..BackgroundAs per the prosecution, the prime accused, one Md Enamul Haque and his associates had conspired along with BSF personnel and customs officials o illegally smuggle cattle to Bangladesh.It was further alleged that in order to enable the movement of the cattle through the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad, Haque had obtained illegal favours from the Mondal, a 'powerful political satrap.'The CBI added that Mondal used his influence to facilitate the crime and received wrongful gains for his patronage.A High Court bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta had, while denying bail, noted that the TMC leader was an "influential" person.It had also reasoned that illegal cattle smuggling has a far-reaching impact on the economic and national security of the country.