Kolkata: Police Thursday arrested the manager and brother-in-law of absconding stone trader Tullu Mondal, following a night-long search operation during which they recovered Rs 28.5 crore in cash and 15 kg of gold from his residence in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, in one of the state’s biggest seizures of suspected illegally amassed assets in recent years.
We have recovered Rs 28.5 crore in cash and 15 kg of gold. Tullu Mondal’s manager and brother-in-law Minar Mondal has been apprehended. His house has been sealed, Birbhum SP VR Bhundesh told reporters.
Till Wednesday evening, Rs 20 crore had been recovered from Minar Mondal’s residence.
Several metal trunks were used to transport the seized cash from the premises after the counting process was completed. The money was initially taken to Mohammad Bazar police station in sealed condition and is likely to be deposited in a bank, police sources said.
Police said they recovered 14 gold bars weighing 1 kg each and 10 gold biscuits of 100 grams each, valued at around Rs 21.5 crore at current market prices, from Minar’s two-storey residence at Deucha village.
Minar, who was detained along with his son during Wednesday’s raid, was formally arrested Thursday morning and is expected to be produced before a local court.
According to police, Tullu Mondal, alias Mohd Nazibuddin, has substantial interests in Birbhum’s stone quarrying business and has been described by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari as a sand mafia operator.
The recovery comes amid a wider crackdown on alleged illegal mining and revenue leakages in Birbhum, a district long under the scanner over allegations of illegal quarrying and organised crime linked to the stone trade.
Tullu had figured in the CBI probe into the multi-crore cattle smuggling case. In August 2022, the agency searched several of his properties, office and godown in the Mohammad Bazar area of the district. The Enforcement Directorate later summoned him to Delhi for questioning in November that year.
Police suspect a substantial portion of the cash represented revenue allegedly siphoned off instead of being deposited into government coffers.
The investigation is continuing to trace the source of the money and identify other persons linked to the alleged racket.
Adhikari Wednesday had hailed the operation as a major crackdown on the sand mafia and reiterated his government’s zero tolerance policy against corruption and organised crime.
He had claimed that intensified enforcement had sharply increased revenue collections from Birbhum’s stone quarrying sector after the BJP assumed office in the state.
Responding to the development, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had said that while those responsible for such crimes should not be spared, the government should also investigate political leaders who had allegedly patronised such activities.
