Clearing the way for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal to Delhi for questioning in connection with a cattle smuggling case, the Calcutta High Court on Saturday set aside a petition by him challenging a production warrant issued by a special CBI court.
The court also ordered Mondal to pay a fine of Rs one lakh for forum shopping.
Rejecting the petition by Mondal challenging a production warrant issued by the special CBI court at Asansol in West Bengal, Justice Bibek Chaudhuri directed that the TMC Birbhum district president be taken to Delhi by air.
He directed that doctors posted in a central government hospital in Kolkata in the department of general medicine, cardiology and general surgery will examine Mondal and issue a medical certificate stating the condition of the health of the petitioner before he is handed over to the ED.
Justice Chaudhari directed that a medical officer will accompany Mondal to Delhi and he will be examined medically by doctors immediately after his arrival in the national capital.
It was directed that such medical papers be produced before the trial court in Delhi at the time of the production of Mondal before it.
The court said that Mondal resorted to forum shopping by approaching high courts in Calcutta and Delhi to prevent the ED from taking him to the national capital.
Justice Chaudhari directed him to "pay compensatory cost of Rs one lakh in the High Court Legal Services Authority as a compensation for instituting successive, harassing applications of similar nature before the highest seat of judiciary of two states of the country to obviate the process of the court."
The TMC leader was arrested by the ED in November last year. He was taken into custody by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case in August 2022.
His lawyer moved the petition claiming that the order on the basis of which Mondal is sought to be shifted to Delhi is bad in law and cannot be issued by the special judge, CBI Court at Asansol.
-With PTI Input
