A day-long drama, comprising an eight-hour journey from Asansol to Calcutta and another four-hour wait at the VIP lounge of the NSC Bose International Airport, marked Trinamul Congress Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal’s transit to Delhi under the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and, finally, ended a month-long tug-o-war between him and the agency over whether or not he could be moved to the Capital for custodial investigation.

Mondal’s flight, Vistara Airlines UK 738, wheeled up from Calcutta at 7 PM, fifteen minutes after its scheduled time of departure, for its two-hour 10-minute flight to Delhi on a day Bengal celebrated its festival of colours, the Dolyatra. The leader was accompanied by a cardiologist from ESI Joka, Dr Anirban Ghosh and three ED officials, Pankaj Kumar, Arun Roy and Nishang Saxena.

Two other senior officers of the agency, involved in Mondal’s interrogation, were scheduled to leave for Delhi in a subsequent flight.

The Trinamul heavyweight was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in July last year and subsequently by the ED in November in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam case in Bengal and was lodged at the Asansol Special Correctional Home.

Mondal had been resisting the ED’s efforts to shift him to Delhi – a process which the agency had followed for Mondal’s former bodyguard and one of the key accused in the case, Sehgal Hossain, and wanted to repeat for Mondal – on grounds of “ill health” and “extra-jurisdictional domain of the case”.

His efforts came to naught after verdicts from a month-long legal tussle at the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi, the Calcutta High Court, the Delhi High Court and the Special CBI Court in Asansol went against the Birbhum strongman and the ED secured the necessary legal clearances for transit remand.

Mondal was taken out from the Asansol prison at 6.45 on Tuesday morning with security cover from the Asansol police commissionerate. His first stop was at an eatery by the highway in Shaktigarh where Mondal had his breakfast with puri-sabzi and sugar-free sweets.

Interestingly, despite being in ED custody and remaining under security cover provided by the Bengal police, Mondal was seen joined at his table by Kripamoy Ghosh, a TMC leader from Birbhum, Chhotan Singh, a student leader of the district and Toofan Mridha, driver of the car used by Mondal’s daughter Sukanya. Mondal was seen talking to all three at the breakfast table. Mondal spent some 20 minutes at the eatery, from 8.50 AM to 9.10 AM.

The owner of the eatery later confirmed that he served breakfast to not just Mondal but to all others accompanying the accused leader including those providing him security, some 14 plates in all, and raised a bill of about Rs 1000.

Mondal’s convoy reached the ESI Hospital in Joka a little after 11 am and the leader remained inside the facility for the next three hours for his mandatory medical tests performed, reportedly, by doctors of general medicine, cardiology and surgery departments. He left the facility at around 2.10 AM after doctors at ESI, Joka awarded him a ‘fit to travel’ certificate.

Mondal was greeted with “goruchor (cattle thief)" slogans by unidentified individuals who had gathered at the hospital premises.

Negating speculations of a possible stopover at the ED’s regional headquarters at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, Mondal’s convoy reached the airport directly at around 2.45 PM where the suspect was escorted to the VIP lounge amid his complaints of breathlessness and requests for admission to a nearby hospital.

Mondal, reportedly, was administered inhalers upon medical advice at the airport to address his breathing difficulties.

The transfer drama evoked political responses, both serious and sarcastic, from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

“I believe that justice will prevail in the end and the judges will eventually see through the political design behind this arrest and transit,” said Firhad Hakim, senior Trinamul Congress leader.

“The BJP was desperate to move him out of Bengal ahead of the panchayat polls and that’s why this entire drama is being played out,” alleged Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson.

BJP leader Dilip Ghosh chipped in: “They could have taken him in winter. But the agency chose to wait till the summer so he could feel comfortable. He can have chilled lassi in Delhi now. There’s no reason for him to complain.”