A key player in the illegal cattle trade which has flourished on West Bengal-Bangladesh border has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The suspect, Mohammed Inamul Haque, was absconding following the registration of criminal case and raids by the CBI in September.
Haque has been arrested from Delhi and the CBI will seek his remand for custodial interrogation. His alleged links with the Border Security Force personnel and officials of the customs department will be probed by the CBI. Inamul Haque will also be examined about his suspected political links.
Two years back, his name first cropped up when the CBI arrested BSF Commandant Jibu T Mathew and over Rs 45 lakhs was seized. The officer said that he received money from a trader Bishu Sheikh. However, subsequent investigation revealed that Bishu Sheikh is a fake name and it was Inamul Haque who paid the bribe. He was later arrested.
Sources say Inamul Haque has several BSF personnel and customs officials on his payroll and his questioning will reveal how big is this racket.
In September, in a new case, the CBI carried out searches at 13 locations including two in West Bengal’s Kolkata and Murshidabad. The case was registered after carrying out a preliminary enquiry for two years against BSF Commandant of 36 battalions Satish Kumar.
Between 19th December 2015 and 22nd April 2017, Sanjay was posted as Commandant of the 36th battalion in Malda district.
The CBI FIR said, “during his posting, more than 20,000 cows were seized by the BSF before they could be smuggled to Bangladesh. However, no vehicle was seized or any individual, who was transporting cows, was apprehended.”
Seized cattle were auctioned immediately with help of customs station at Jangipur, Murshidabad. Since the cattle were shown mostly small in size and common breed in the seizure memo of BSF, the auction value of such cattle was reduced which were then procured at a considerable lower price by traders like Inamul Haque and others.
“Inamul Haque used to pay Rs. 2,000 per cattle to BSF officials and Rs. 500 to concerned customs officials. Besides, the officials of Indian Customs used to take a bribe of 10 per cent of the auction price from successful bidders like Inamul Haque, Golam Mustafa, Anarul and others,” said the CBI in the FIR.
