Anubrata Mondal Attacked Inside TMC Office in Suri, Premises Vandalised

Suri, West Bengal : A group of people attacked Anubrata Mondal, the former strongman of Birbhum and a leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Wednesday after storming into his party office in Suri and vandalising the premises.

Mondal, the party’s Birbhum district president, was sitting at a table inside the Trinamool office when the group entered. Videos from online appear to show two men carrying sticks and tree branches and smashing chairs, tables and other items.

Videos circulating online showed Mondal repeatedly trying to calm the men down. At one point, one of them appears to grab him by the collar, calling him “goruchor” (cattle thief) — an insult hurled at him by the attackers, referring to the cattle-smuggling cases against him

The attackers continued to smash furniture and other items inside the office, including an air-conditioning.

When Mondal asked them to listen to him, one of the men replied: “Not another word.” He then struck the table in front of Mondal with a branch, sending shards of glass flying. Some of the glass reportedly hit Mondal, who remained seated. Mondal’s associates were reportedly present inside the office during the incident but largely stood by as the attack and vandalism unfolded.

Anubrata Mondal spent more than two years in custody after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him on August 11, 2022, in connection with a multi-crore cattle-smuggling case.

The agency accused him of being involved in an organised racket that allegedly transported cattle through Birbhum and Murshidabad for smuggling across the India-Bangladesh border.

In November 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in a parallel money-laundering investigation linked to the same case, bringing him to Delhi and keeping him in Tihar Jail.

The Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case in July 2024, but he remained in jail because of the ED proceedings. A Delhi court finally granted him regular bail in the money-laundering case on September 20, 2024, paving the way for his release from Tihar after more than two years in custody.

Mondal was long known for his aggressive approach towards political opponents and, at times, the police.

During the 2013 panchayat polls, he allegedly told a meeting that the houses of Independent candidates should be burnt and that bombs should be hurled at the police if they intervened.

He was also accused by Opposition leaders, during the 2018 panchayat polls, of preventing rival candidates from filing nominations.