CBI books BSF commandant for cattle smuggling on Indo-Bangladesh border

Kolkata, November 17

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a BSF commandant for his alleged involvement in a cattle smuggling racket operating at the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, a source in the investigating agency said.

Satish Kumar, the BSF commandant who is now posted at Raipur in Chhattisgarh, was summoned to Kolkata for questioning in connection with the case by the CBI which arrested him after interrogating him for hours.

"Satish Kumar has been arrested. A case was registered against him two months ago. He will be produced before a court tomorrow," the CBI source said.

In September, CBI sleuths had conducted raids in different parts of West Bengal, including Kolkata, over cattle smuggling on the international border. The BSF commandant's house was also raided at that time.

Kumar, who was Commandant of the 36th Battalion of the BSF's South Bengal Frontier then, and three others were booked for rustling cattle, the source said.

When contacted, a senior BSF official of the South Bengal Frontier said, "Kumar was transferred from the 36th Battalion three years back. He is now posted in the Naxalite area of Raipur, Chattisgarh."

The three other persons who were booked along with Kumar included Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of the cattle smuggling racket.

The CBI arrested Haq on November 6 in New Delhi. A court in the national capital granted him an interim bail and told him to appear before CBI in Kolkata on November 9. He came to the agency's office and claimed was is a suspected COVID-19 case, following which its officials asked him to visit them on November 24.

Haque was earlier arrested in 2018 by the CBI for allegedly bribing another BSF Commandant and is out on bail in that case. --- PTI

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