KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal on Wednesday said he wanted a CBI probe into a threat letter against a judge of Asansol special CBI court who is hearing the alleged cattle smuggling case against him.
Asansol special CBI court judge Rajesh Chakraborty wrote to Paschim Bardhaman district judge on Monday requesting him to take note of the "threat" and bring it to the notice of the Registrar, Judicial Service, of the Calcutta High Court.
"I want to request the judge to order a CBI investigation into it," Mondal said in reply to questions by reporters about the threat letter while he was being taken to the Asansol special CBI court for production.
A letter threatening to implicate his family members in NDPS case of commercial quantity if Mondal is not released on bail soon was sent to the officer-in-charge of the court, judge Chakraborty wrote to the district judge.
Asked whether he is hopeful to get bail, the TMC Birbhum district president said it is for the court to decide.
"Mamata Banerjee has done a lot," Mondal said when asked whether he wants to send any message to the chief minister.
Banerjee, at a public meeting on August 14 in Kolkata, had stood by Mondal, asking what he had done to be arrested by the CBI.
She had alleged that agencies are being used to malign whom they want to.
CBI is probing a cattle smuggling case, in connection with which it has made a number of arrests, including Mondal on August 11.
He has been in CBI custody since then.
The judge has also received a letter threatening to implicate him and his family in a drug case if the politician is not granted bail soon, a source said on Tuesday.
Asansol's CBI court judge Rajesh Chakraborty has written a letter to the district judge of Paschim Bardhaman district requesting him to take note of the "threat" and bring it to the notice of the registrar, Judicial Service, Appellate Side of the Calcutta High Court.
"With great anxiety, I do hereby forward to you a letter by one Bappa Chatterjee being addressed to the Officer-in-charge of this court threatening that if Anubrata Mondal is not released, my family members would be implicated in NDPS case with commercial quantity," the judge's letter read.
The CBI arrested Mondal, the Birbhum district president of the Trinamool Congress, in a cattle smuggling case on August 11.
Mondal had appealed for bail on August 20 citing poor health, but the CBI counsel opposed his plea describing him as a "very powerful and highly influential person".
If granted bail, he could "influence witnesses and tamper with evidence", the central agency said.
The judge, who then extended Mondal's CBI custody till August 24, got the threat letter also on August 20.
The special CBI court in Asansol is hearing the cases of coal and cattle smuggling.
Several people were arrested in these cases.
A CBI team on Tuesday visited the additional district sub-registrar's office here in Birbhum to inquire about properties registered in the name of arrested TMC leader Anubrata Mondal and his relatives, as part of its probe into an alleged cattle smuggling scam, a senior official said.
The four-member CBI team went to the ADSR office with documents seized from several places raided by the central agency in connection with its investigation, he said.
"We have in our possession several documents related to properties belonging to Mr Mondal, including some which were transferred in the name of others.
Our officers are tallying records with the ADSR, the official told PTI.
The CBI is trying to ascertain if these properties were purchased using the funds acquired from the alleged cattle smuggling.
The interrogation of Mondal, the Trinamool Congress Birbhum district president, by the CBI is still underway, he said.
Mondal will be produced in court on Wednesday.
He was arrested by the probe agency earlier this month for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam.