WB cattle smuggling racket: Delhi High Court grants bail to Sukanya Mondal in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sukanya Mondal, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to a cattle smuggling racket in West Bengal, noting that the trial may take a long time to get concluded.

Sukanya is the daughter of Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, who too is in judicial custody in the same case.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna granted the relief to Sukanya, who is in custody since April 26, 2023, considering that she is a woman and is entitled to bail under the proviso to Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The court directed Sukanya to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with a surety of the like amount and asked her to not leave the country without prior permission of the court and not try to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.

“…the applicant may be an educated woman having her business and commercial enterprise, but it cannot be overlooked that the allegations against her are essentially in the context of her father and that she in her commercial ventures, has laundered the money received by her father as a bribe,” the high court said.

As per Proviso to Section 45 (1) of the PMLA, a person who is under the age of 16 years or is a woman or is sick or infirm (or is accused either on his own or along with other co-accused of money-laundering a sum of less than 1 crore rupees), may be released on bail.

Sukanya sought bail on the ground that she was a woman and has no involvement in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the alleged cattle smuggling racket.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, representing Sukanya, submitted that she was a 31-year-old single woman and has clean antecedents.

He said she has deep roots in society and there was no apprehension of her running away from trial. Her custody, he contended, was no longer required by the ED as the investigation has been completed and charge sheet filed in the court.

While granting her bail, the high court noted that she is not an accused in the predicate (the main case of cattle smuggling) offence.

The daughter of West Bengal's ruling TMC's Birbhum strongman had challenged the trial court's June last year order dismissing her bail plea.

The plea also sought parity for his client as co-accused Tania Sanyal was granted bail by the trial court, and claimed that the petitioner's case was on a better footing.

The petition submitted that Sanyal was the wife of Border Security Force (BSF) commandant Satish Kumar, a key accused in the case. It said Sanyal was accused of receiving bribe for cattle smuggling from Enamul Haque, another accused in the case, and laundering it.

The ED prosecutor had earlier submitted that there was incriminating material against Sukanya and a charge sheet was filed against her. The lawyer had argued that the crimes under probe threatened to jeopardise national security and weaken the country's economy.

Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress's Birbhum district president, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the same case on August 11 last year. He was granted bail by the apex court in July in the CBI case.

The ED arrested him on November 17, 2022 in the alleged multi-crore rupees cattle smuggling scam after questioning him in the Asansol jail where he was lodged.

According to the ED, it registered the money laundering case following an FIR filed by the CBI in Kolkata against Satish Kumar, who was then a BSF commandant.

The CBI FIR alleged that Anubrata Mondal, along with Kumar, other public servants and private persons, was involved in the multi-crore cattle smuggling racket.