ED arrests key accused in cattle smuggling case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 19

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Md Enamul Haque, prime accused in a multi-crore cross-border cattle smuggling racket along the India-Bangladesh frontier in West Bengal under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of its probe in the case.

Haque was arrested by the CBI in November 2020 as part of its independent probe into the same case, but he was granted bail by the Supreme Court last month, the official said.

The CBI had earlier filed a chargesheet before a special court in West Bengal’s Asansol alleging that Haque was the mastermind of the illegal cattle trade. It said he was assisted by two other accused, TMC youth leader Vinay Mishra and his arrested brother Vikas Mishra, in alleged connivance with BSF Commandant Satish Kumar, who was posted in Murshidabad and Malda regions of the state.

Some others were also named in the CBI chargesheet in connection with the alleged cattle smuggling that has been rampant along the India-Bangladesh border in Bengal.

On the link of the Mishra brothers to the alleged cattle smuggling case, the ED had claimed that “between October 2016 and March 2017, Vinay Mishra and Vikas Mishra received funds amounting to Rs 6.1 crore from cattle smuggler Md Haque”.

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