The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted searches on two premises linked to West Bengal Trinamool Youth Congress general secretary Vinay Mishra in connection with a case of alleged smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh, said an agency official.
“The searches are being carried out at two places in Kolkata, related to Mr. Mishra,” said the CBI official.
In November, the agency arrested Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant Satish Kumar for his alleged role in the case. He was booked along with three traders named Enamul Haque, Anarul Sheikh and Mohammed Golam Mustafa. Haque was earlier arrested by the CBI.
After registering the case in September, the CBI searched the premises of the accused persons at 13 locations in Kolkata and Murshidabad in West Bengal, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Amritsar in Punjab and Raipur in Chhattisgarh.
It was alleged that during the Commandant's tenure, more than 20,000 cows were seized by the BSF, but the persons involved in the smuggling were not arrested. Their transport vehicles were also not impounded.
The FIR alleged a big nexus among BSF personnel, Customs officials and unscrupulous traders behind the smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh via West Bengal. The traders would buy back the seized cattle at cheap rates by paying bribes, causing huge losses to the exchequer.
The accused Commandant had allegedly got his son Bhuvan Bhaskar employed in the Haque Industries Private Limited, at a salary of more than ₹30,000 a month.
