The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Satish Kumar, a senior officer in the Border Security Force (BSF), on Tuesday night in the Bengal cattle smuggling case that the agency has been investigating since 2018. Kumar he was arrested in Calcutta after hours of questioning.
The officer is one of the main defendants mentioned in the first information report (FIR). He was a commander on the South Bengal border of the BSF and is now stationed at Raipur in Chhattisgarh. His home in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was raided in September, a senior BSF official from the South Bengal Border said on condition of anonymity. The agency also sealed a house that he owns in the Salt Lake area on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata.
The IWC is investigating the alleged involvement of various BSF and Customs officials in the ongoing investigation into the smuggling of livestock along the West Bengal-Bangladesh border. The illegal trade involved millions of rupees.
A CBI official said, on condition of anonymity, that according to the agency’s FIR, more than 20,000 cows were seized by the BSF when Kumar was appointed commander of the 36th Battalion from May 2016 to May 2017. However, no no smugglers or vehicles were arrested. used to transport seized cattle, says the FIR.
The case was recorded in 2018 after a BSF commander, who served in Bengal, was booked in Kerala. The investigation revealed a link between government officials and cow traders. It is alleged that the cattle seized by the BSF was auctioned within 24 hours with the help of some Customs officials so that the cattle traders could buy it at a very low price and legally sell it again.
The CBI is investigating charges that for every cow seized and sold through this nexus, BSF officials used to get 2,000 rupees and customs officials used to get 500 rupees, according to the CBI FIR that HT has seen. Furthermore, customs officials used to allegedly obtain 10 percent of the auction price as a bribe.
CBI officials suspect that a large amount of money was sent to other states through hawala operators.
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