Was told to prescribe Anubrata Mondal 14-day bedrest, Bengal doctor tells CBI
TMC leader Anubrata Mondal, who was arrested from his Bolpur house on Thursday after he again skipped CBI summons, was brought to Kolkata on Friday
KOLKATA: A West Bengal government doctor, who prescribed 14-day bedrest to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal a day before his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has told the agency that he was coerced to make the recommendation.
Dr Chandranath Adhikary, a doctor in a state-run hospital, was questioned on Thursday, around the same time that a team of CBI officers reached heavy-weight TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s house in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
Dr Adhikary was the last physician to examine Mondal on August 9. The TMC’s Birbhum district president, who skipped many summons by CBI on medical grounds, was arrested by CBI on August 11 in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case.
On Monday, the SSKM hospital in Kolkata refused to admit Mondal, saying his ailments were chronic in nature and did not necessitate hospitalisation
Adhikary told CBI that he went to Mondal’s house to examine him on the orders of the hospital superintendent.
Dr Adhikary told reporters on Friday that CBI has recorded his statement.
“I was asked by the hospital superintendent to examine Mondal at his house. I was asked to prescribe on a white sheet of paper without putting the hospital’s stamp. Mondal asked me to prescribe 14 days bed rest. He was the district president of the ruling party and very influential… I went there with just one male attendant. How could I refuse him. I was under pressure,” said Adhikary on Friday.
Mondal, the first TMC leader to be arrested in the cattle smuggling case, was brought from Bolpur to Kolkata in the early hours of Friday. He is the first TMC leader to be arrested in the cattle smuggling case. A special CBI court at Asansol has remanded him in CBI custody for 10 days.
“He was brought to the agency’s office in Kolkata early on Friday for questioning,” said a CBI official.
Mondal’s arrest comes as a huge setback to the ruling Trinamool Congress and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
After Thursday’s development, the BJP has stepped up its attacks on West Bengal’s ruling TMC.
While BJP leaders and workers were seen distributing sugar candy and jaggery to people in several areas, the party’s senior leadership hit the streets on Friday in Kolkata and the districts against the alleged corruption in the TMC government.
“More wickets are likely to fall. In the future, Mamata Banerjee may have to hold her government’s cabinet meetings and the party’s state-level meetings in jails as the entire party is corrupt and all leaders will meet the same fate as that of Chatterjee and Mondal. The TMC has been unmasked,” said Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s national vice president.