Anubrata Mandal is an Indian politician and businessman. He came into limelight in August 2022 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him in a multi-crore animal trafficking case. He is considered one of the closest aides of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
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Wiki/Biography
Anubrata Mandal was born on Wednesday, 1 April 1959 (age 63 years; as of 2022) in Bolpur, Birbhum district, West Bengal, India. His zodiac sign is Aries. Anubrata studied only till eighth grade.
Family
Anubrata Mandal belongs to a lower middle class Bengali farmer family.
parents and siblings
His father Kripasindhu Mandal was a businessman. His mother’s name is Pushparani Mandal. He died in April 2019.
A photo of Anubrata Mandal’s parents
He is the eldest among five siblings. He has a sister named Shibani Ghosh. His brother Sumit Mandal is a primary school teacher.
wife and children
His wife’s name is Chhavi Mandal. He died due to cancer in January 2020. His daughter, Sukanya Mandal, is a primary school teacher and businesswoman.
Anubrata Mandal with his wife during the wedding
A picture of Sukanya Mondal with her mother
relationships/affairs
Anubrata Mandal dated Chhabi Mandal for a few years before marrying her.
a photo of the image board
Religion
Anubrata Mandal follows Hindu religion.
signature/autograph
Signature of Anubrata Mandal
livelihood
Politics
Anubrata Mandal used to run a small grocery shop to make ends meet. Later he also worked as a fish trader. His career as a politician began in the early 1990s when he joined the Indian National Congress (INC).
Anubrata Mandal with Rajiv Gandhi
He became acquainted with Mamata Banerjee in the 90s when she was working as the state Youth Congress president in Bengal. He left the Congress in 1998 when Mamata Banerjee left the Congress due to growing differences between her and senior Congress leaders. In the same year, Anubrata joined the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC). In 2000, he was appointed as the TMC president of Birbhum district. According to Anubrata, he never contested elections because he did not want to become a minister. While talking in an interview he said,
I never contested general or assembly elections because I was never tempted to become a minister. I do not want to be. I am happy to work for the party as a loyalist.
As a senior TMC leader, he has successfully organized several state elections, leading to massive victories for TMC. After the formation of TMC government in West Bengal in 2011, their power increased manifold. Anubrata Mandal has also served as the Chairman of West Bengal State Rural Development Agency (WBSRDA) and Chairman of Tarapith Development Authority. In February 2022, he was included in the National Working Committee of TMC.
A picture of Anubrata Mandal with Mamata Banerjee
Business
In 1990, Anubrata Mandal established Mayurakshi Cotton Mills in Birbhum, West Bengal. He was appointed director of the mill on 9 April 2013. According to CBI, more than 16 rice mills are registered in his name in West Bengal. He also holds 2500 shares in ANM Agrochem Foods.
controversies
Involvement in violence during elections
Anubrata Mandal has often been in controversy for instigating violence in West Bengal, especially during elections. In 2013, during the panchayat election campaign in Birbhum district, Mandal made headlines after openly threatening non-TMC candidates. During a rally, he asked TMC workers to burn houses of opposition candidates and attack police forces deployed for election duty with crude bombs. He was also accused by Congress and BJP candidates of asking his supporters to attack candidates who were trying to file nominations for the elections. Talking about this, the then Birbhum District BJP President Dudhkumar Mandal said,
BJP’s Sujay Biswas and Vishwajeet Baidya were dragged out of the BDO office and beaten severely. He suffered serious injuries on his head. Kashinath Mishra was beaten up in Labhpur in our district and has been admitted to the hospital with head injury.
His comments and actions were criticized by opposition parties, who complained to the State Election Commission. Mamata later defended him and accused the media of trying to create TRP by distorting his statement and ignoring his medical condition of hypoxia. In 2014, he was accused of approving the murder of Sagar Ghosh, father of Hriday Ghosh, an independent candidate from Birbhum who contested the 2013 panchayat elections. Reportedly, Anubrata had given inflammatory speeches during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2016 Bengal Assembly elections, after which he was put on the watch list by the Election Commission of India (ECI). During the 2018 panchayat elections, several non-TMC candidates accused Mandal of directing his supporters to prevent other candidates from filing nominations. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had filed a complaint against Anubrata after BJP worker Bapi Ankure was beaten to death by TMC workers during the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal. The BJP said in its complaint that TMC workers killed Bapi on the orders of Anubrata because he wanted to create an “atmosphere of fear” in Bengal. Once a video went viral on the internet in which Anubrata was threatening a senior police officer with dire consequences if he belittled him.
West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has filed a complaint with the Election Commission against “TMC leader Anubrata Mondol and party workers for brutally killing a BJP worker and creating an atmosphere of fear.” pic.twitter.com/uoUVUelL0r
– ANI (@ANI) 17 March 2021
Anubrata Mandal’s name was also linked to the Bogatui massacre that took place in March 2022, in which eight people were burnt alive due to personal rivalry.
Money laundering and animal trafficking allegations
In 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against Anubrata Mandal, his bodyguard Sehgal Hussain, Enamul Haq and a BSF commandant named Satish Kumar. In the FIR, the CBI claimed that Anubrata was involved in cross-border cattle smuggling between 2015 and 2017 and earned crores of rupees through it. On 12 August 2022, the CBI took Anubrata into custody after he failed to appear before the investigation team in Kolkata despite being summoned ten times. During an interview a CBI officer said,
We have arrested him for non-cooperation in the investigation of the animal trafficking case. We have found direct involvement of Mandal in the scam. We will interrogate him today and take necessary action as per law.
Later, he was produced before an Asansol court, which sent him to CBI custody, and was later taken to a correctional center in Asansol. In November 2022, the CBI filed another chargesheet against Anubrata Mandal for laundering money earned by smuggling cattle into Bangladesh through lottery tickets. Mandal tried to regularize the income from animal smuggling by pretending that he had won a lottery worth Rs. Rs 1 crore from a Nagaland-based lottery company in December 2021. However, the CBI claimed that Rs 10 lakh was deposited in Mandal’s account and Rs 51 lakh in his daughter Sukanya’s account in two parts in 2019, i.e. two years before 2021. In an interview, CBI An investigator from said,
The Board attempted to regularize the income from animal trafficking through some lottery prize money. Investigations are underway to find out whether he and his daughter had won lottery prizes more than once.
CBI at Anubrata Mandal’s office
In November 2022, a lottery ticket dealer named Bapi Ganguly from Bolpur claimed that Anubrata Mandal did not win the 1 crore lottery ticket and a young man named Sheikh Noor Ali was the real winner. On interrogating Sheikh Noor Ali’s father, it was revealed that Mandal had bought the lottery ticket from Ali by promising to pay Rs 83 lakh. Ali’s father said that initially Rs 5-7 lakh were deposited in his bank account, however, when he asked for the remaining amount, he started receiving death threats. Talking about this during an interview, Bapi said,
Actually, this valuable lottery was sold by Rahul Lottery Agency of Bolpur. Retailer Kalam Sheikh sold it to Noor Ali (a resident of a village near Bolpur). Anubrata Mandal had bought the lottery ticket (from Noor) for Rs 83 lakh. Noor Ali had told the truth. He is not lying to anyone. The sale of lottery tickets was mediated by Vishwajyoti Banerjee (a Trinamool councilor in Bolpur) and I personally checked whether the ticket was genuine or not as he had no experience in the lottery business.
In November 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Anubrata Mandal for his connection with a cross-border cattle smuggling case.
Anubrata Mandal being taken to a court in Asansol by CRPF
tuition scam
In 2022, Anubrata Mandal, while serving as the President of West Bengal Rural, was accused of appointing his daughter, Sukanya Mandal, her brother and their close acquaintances as government primary school teachers without passing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). The allegation was made. development Authority. However, Anubrata denied the allegations against him and his daughter and said that he had all the evidence to prove that his daughter had qualified the TET exam. Anubrata said in an interview,
He has passed the examination and also has a certificate. The court has not summoned him [Sukanya], It has only asked them to present their documents.
salary/income
According to CBI, the annual income of Anubrata Mandal in the year 2020-21 was Rs 1,44,90,090.
Property
According to CBI, 24 properties are registered in the name of Anubrata Mandal. He also owns 31.2 acres of agricultural land in Syan, Birbhum district of West Bengal. He has also acquired six “unnamed” petrol pumps in West Bengal and owns over a hundred dumper trucks. According to sources, Anubrata has acquired 240 acres of land in the last few years.
Facts/General Knowledge
- Anubrata Mandal is also known as Keshto Da.
- In a chargesheet filed by the CBI in October 2022, the CBI claimed that from 2013 to 2022, Anubrata purchased properties worth Rs 6.5 crore. Between 2015 and 2021, he sold property worth Rs 2.19 crore.
- Even though Anubrata Mandal never held the post of cabinet minister, he used to travel in a red light car in West Bengal.
- On 26 November 2021, Anubrata Mandal was appointed as the director of West Bengal Swarojgar Nigam Limited, an unlisted company of the West Bengal state government.
- In 2022, Anubrata Mandal published an autobiography titled Khela Hobe.
A picture taken during the launch of Anubrata Mandal’s book Khela Hobe
- He follows a non-vegetarian diet.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn