Highlight
- A group of lawyers from West Bengal on Thursday wrote to CJI NV Ramana expressing concern
- There were concerns over alleged threats to the CBI judge presiding over the case of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal
- Lawyers said that Special CBI Court, Asansol Judge Rajesh Chakraborty was threatened by Bappa Chatterjee
Anubrata Mandal case: A group of lawyers from West Bengal on Thursday (August 25) wrote to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana expressing concern over alleged threats to the CBI judge presiding over the case of Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, as he took the matter to the West. Requested to move out. Bengal.
In their letter to the CJI, the lawyers said, “We are shocked and filled with cold terror by the recent incident relating to a high-profile court proceedings involving the Advocates of the High Court in Calcutta and other District Courts of West Bengal. The politician of West Bengal who is nothing short of a direct and brazen attack on the justice delivery system.”
The lawyers said that a letter written by Bappa Chatterjee directly to Judge Rajesh Chakraborty of the special CBI court, Asansol, threatened that if the bail of an accused in the animal smuggling case, Anubrata Mandal, is being probed by the CBI, permission would be granted. is not granted, the family members of the said judge will be implicated in certain cases of NDPS showing seizure of narcotics in commercial quantities.
He said that such a fact has already been brought to the notice of District Judge, West Burdwan by Justice Rajesh Chakraborty.
“The said accused Anubrata Mandal is the President of Birbhum District Trinamool Congress Party and is a highly influential person who is now in CBI custody in a cattle smuggling case. It is, therefore, a matter of grave concern that attempts are made to intimidate judicial officers. … the advantage of a highly influential politician in custody,” wrote Lavers.
Read also: Cattle smuggling case: TMC leader Anubrata Mondal sent to 14-day judicial custody
“We the General Counsel of Calcutta High Court and other District Courts of West Bengal are very concerned to learn about such fact and strongly oppose such attack on the judiciary. We will take appropriate steps in this matter. request your lordship and transfer the said case from West Bengal to any other state, so that the administration of justice is not interfered with and/or obstructed and the guilty persons are punished accordingly.”
Earlier on Wednesday (August 24), a special CBI court judge alleged that he has received a letter threatening Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal to implicate her family in drug cases if she is not granted bail. .
Asansol special CBI court judge Rajesh Chakraborty alleged that the letter he found had the signature of a person named Bappa Chatterjee. Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum district president Mandal was arrested last week in the 2020 cattle smuggling case.
The special court judge said the letter warned that if Mandal was not released, his family members would be implicated in the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act case with commercial quantities.
The Judge also drew the attention of the District Judge and also brought it to the notice of the Registrar-General of the High Court of Calcutta. Following his arrest, Mandal, a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was remanded to CBI custody till August 24. ,
Mandal was summoned several times by the CBI but he avoided appearing citing health issues. He was finally arrested on 11 August from his residence in Bolpur in Birbhum district.
The arrest also led to a war of words between the BJP and the TMC. West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya had alleged that the CBI summons to Mandal was “political vendetta”.
BJP leaders have repeatedly accused the TMC regime of promoting corruption. On September 21, 2020, the CBI arrested a former commandant of the Border Security Force (BSF) in an illegal cattle smuggling case along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The agency had claimed that Anubrata Mondal’s name had come under the scanner of the CBI during the investigation of the case.
(with ANI inputs)
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