Kolkata, July 31 (IANS) The West Bengal Police on Friday sealed the residence of Birbhum-based stone quarry owner Tulu Mondal, who has been accused of corruption during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime.
The development surfaced just 24 hours after the Birbhum District Police seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 28 crore and 15 kilograms of gold with an estimated market value of around Rs 22 crore from the residence of Minar Mondal, a close relative of Tulu Mondal, who had gone absconding since the cash and gold seizure on Thursday.
During the interrogation, Minar confessed that the gold and cash were actually owned by Tulu Mondal and he was just responsible for stockpiling them at his residence. He had also admitted that the gold biscuits recovered from his residences were illegally sourced from Dubai.
It is learnt that a huge contingent of Birbhum District Police arrived at Tulu’s residence at Suri in Birbhum district on Thursday and conducted a nightlong raid and search operations there. Barring the caretaker and some domestic aides, none of the family members was present at the residence then.
Finally, on early Friday morning, the cops brought the caretaker and the domestic aides out of the residence and sealed the main entrance of the house. However, the police had remained tightlipped on the items recovered following nightlong raid and search operations at Tulu Mondal’s residence.
During the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime, Tulu Mondal was known as an extremely close confidant of the erstwhile Trinamool Congress Birbhum-district president, Anubrata Mondal.
Tulu Mondal’s name had also come up in the cattle smuggling case, in which Anubrata Mondal spent months in jail after being arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in August 2022.
Tulu was also under the watch of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2022. At that time, the Central investigators raided his house and office, and he was accused of illegal stone mining.
On the other hand, Minar was a bus driver in the state-run transport corporation. However, locals said he was involved in the stone-quarry business of Tulu Mondal.
–IANS
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