Kolkata, Aug 5 (IANS) The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police was conducting marathon raids and search operations on the residences of two brothers-in-law of Tulu Mondal a.k.a. Mohammad Nazibuddin, the absconding stone quarry owner from Birbhum district of West Bengal.
Recently, the Birbhum district police recovered Rs 28 crore in cash and 15 kilograms of gold biscuits, with an estimated market value of Rs 22 crore, from the residence of Minar Mondal, a close relative of Tulu Mondal.
Minar admitted to the police that the recovered cash and gold did not belong to him and he was only keeping them for Tulu Mondal. Thereafter, the police sealed the residence of Tulu at Suri in Birbhum district.
Now, since Wednesday morning, the STF sleuths have been conducting raids and search operations at the residences of Mintu Sheikh a.k.a. Mohammad Samsul Alam and Nurual Islam, both of whom are Tulu Mondal’s brothers-in-law. Their family members are also being questioned by the STF officials.
The police have so far arrested four persons in connection with the cash and gold recovery. Birbhum’s district police superintendent, Vidit Raj Bundesh, had informed media persons that so far Tulu’s assets worth Rs 220 crore have been ‘frozen’. This includes gold and cash worth around Rs 50 crore recovered from Minar’s residence.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also commenced a preparatory process to probe Tulu Mondal. The central agency officials are currently collecting information from the Birbhum district police in the matter.
Tulu Mondal was known in the district as a close confidant of Anubrata Mondal, the former Trinamool Congress’ Birbhum district president, who had earlier spent days behind bars after being arrested first by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and then by the ED in 2022 in connection with his involvement in a cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.
Tulu Mondal’s name had also come up in the cattle smuggling case. He was under the ED’s watch in 2022, and at that time, the Central investigators raided his house and office.
–IANS
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