Racket of cattle smuggling in Bengal – CBI arrests leader of Trinamool Congress

CBI arrests a Trinamool Congress leader of Birbhum district in Bengal. He is Anubrata Mondal and is suspected of having links to a cattle smuggling racket. It seems the nexus includes senior BSF officers, other politicians and officials of the local administration. The state Criminal Investigation Department CID has already nabbed a person on charges of coal smuggling. That was on July 22 and investigation revealed his links to the cattle smuggling racket. This smuggling operation was in and around Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district. He had an accomplice who operated in other districts of Malda and Murshidabad. The money involved in cattle smuggling was in the range of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore and persons at various levels received pay offs. The list included politicians, police, administration and BSF officers. Cattle smuggling racket that TMC's Anubrata Mondal was involved in had a deep nexus.

The Border Security Force BSF had informed the Union Home Ministry about the extent of smuggling on the India-Bangladesh border. The BSF also shared a list of officers suspected to be involved in the racket. The CBI and ED arrested two of them in January 2018 and April 2022. Court martial proceedings are also initiated against two other BSF officers since April 2019. During interrogation, the name of a minister’s son, who is an MLA in UP surfaced. He is believed to be a beneficiary of the proceeds of cattle smuggling. As an official of the BSF admitted - “The illegal enterprise was most rampant between 2014 and 2019 when the politician-BSF-police nexus made windfall gains.”

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Illegal cultivation of poppy in West Bengal busted

In 2012, Birbhum district in West Bengal had won an award for "zero poppy cultivation" and, in 2013 and 2014, a nominal cultivation (30 to 50 acres) had been noticed. But in the latest survey carried out by excise officials, poppy is being cultivated on 500 acres in Birbhum. It is illegal to grow poppy in the state and the officials and police have destroyed poppy on 50 acres and are in the process of destroying the remaining.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 22 February 2016.

It seems this sudden spurt in poppy cultivation in Birbhum since 2014 is based on assurances given by a section of local political party leaders ahead of the Assembly polls that the panchayats would not pass on information about the illegal farming to the excise department and the police. Normally the panchayats keep the authorities informed but, this did not happen and the excise department began to receive information about an abnormally high rate of poppy cultivation.
A survey revealed that poppy was being cultivated on about 500 acres in the district and local leaders did not inform the excise department since elections are coming and they did not want to antagonize the voters. Opium is usually extracted from poppy pods in January and February and, once that is done, the plants have no value.
One kilogram of opium was sold in the open market at rates between Rs 60,000 and Rs 90,000 and, if a farmer cultivates the crop on one acre, he stands to earn at least Rs 10 lakh.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Trinamool Congress feels the heat as BJP, CPM and Congress gang up

In order to ensure that information about the trouble in Parui in Birbhum district of West Bengal does not reach the outside world, the ruling party of Trinamool Congress are taking every conceivable measure ibnlive.in.com. It may be recalled that three persons were killed and as many injured when Trinamool Congress and BJP supporters fought a gun battle at Makra when Prohibitory Orders under Section 144 CrPC was clamped in the area.
The latest round of clashes between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress workers in Birbhum has become a hotbed of unrest and a political arena. And, after the BJP and the Left, a Congress delegation on Saturday had gone to Birbhum to visit the affected villages but was stopped by the police.
The Congress party was demanding that the police lift Section 144 imposed in the area citing the difficulties which has resulted in the villagers having to face lockdown and associated problems.
Reports indicate that the State Pradesh Congress President Adhir Chowdhury had reached Parui but was stopped by the police on grounds that section 144 was in place in the region. There followed hectic negotiations with the police top brass, and Adhir Chowdhury had to retreat after being assured that the prohibitive section would be lifted in the next 2-4 days.
Of course, Adhir Choudhury has indicated that in case the police do not keep their promise, his Congress party would return after a week with a much larger force and break all the police barriers and violate all laws. Obviously, with the gradual emergence of the BJP as a party that can turn the tables on the TMC, the political equation in West Bengal is likely to change – whether for better or for worse is anybody’s guess.

BJP leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rahul Sinha arrested in Birbhum

The Trinamool Congress leaders are feeling the heat as the BJP is breathing down their necks following the discovery of a large number of terror modules scattered across the countryside of West Bengal indianexpress.com.
It seems senior BJP leaders, including national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and state party Chief Rahul Sinha, were arrested when they tried to enter a village in Birbhum where section 144 has been imposed since Friday.
Naqvi had minced no words when he termed the police action as “death of democracy” and said the “West Bengal government has become a government of terrorists and criminals”.
It seems Naqvi and other BJP leaders, including party MPs Kirti Azad and Udit Raj, had also got involved in a brief, but violent spat with police and jawans of RAF at the adjoining Choumandalpur village. They were told that there has been an order from the “top authority” not to allow any political party inside the village.
Incidentally, the BJP leaders wanted to send a three-member central team to the village “without violating the provision of section 144”.
It seems three persons were killed in clashes in the village - they were one BJP and two Trinamool supporters. The police team had gone there after reports surfaced of bombs hidden at a health centre.