Cattle smuggling case: CBI searches at multiple locations in West Bengal

The CBI on Thursday carried out searches at multiple locations in West Bengal including the premises of TMC leader Vinay Mishra, considered close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with the cattle smuggling case, officials said.

The agency has also issued a look out circular against Mishra to prevent him from leaving the country, they said. The CBI is conducting searches at two premises of Mishra in Kolkata among other locations, they said.

The agency had arrested an alleged kingpin of the cattle smuggling racket in West Bengal and two BSF officials in connection with the case. The CBI had done a preliminary enquiry which showed that cattle smuggling was rampant along the India-Bangladesh border which is allegedly aided by some corrupt officers of the BSF and Customs receiving illegal gratification from smugglers, they said.

The agency has gone full steam on the cases related to West Bengal with Director RK Shukla asking the team probing Saradha and related ponzi scam to complete filing of all the FIRs before January, 2021. The state is going for assembly elections in 2021.