Jalangi7 hours agoWriters: Akshay Bajpayee
Thick part of a banana tree. A cow’s head in between. Feet tied tightly with rope. Only the head of a cow is visible from above. The rest in water. Similarly, the cows cross the river in a few minutes while swimming. People already there take them out. Opens the rope and takes it to Bangladesh.
Similarly, cows and calves are being sent from West Bengal to Bangladesh. There are codenames for everything. Smugglers call a cow calf as Pepsi. Anubrata Mandal is said to be the mastermind of the smuggling. Anubrata of Birbhum is special to TMC leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The CBI had arrested Anubrata Mondal on August 11.
To understand the business of smuggling, we reached the India-Bangladesh border. It was found here that a cow bought in India for 30 thousand is sold in Bangladesh for 1.5 lakh. Let us tell you the story from the way to the last village near the border. Read and watch this exclusive report…
When the policeman stopped taking photos, the chaiwala told about smuggling
Our search started from Kolkata. The source said that Jalangi is a village situated near the border in Murshidabad district. Its distance from Bangladesh is less than 5 km. Cattle smuggling is happening from here for many years. That is why we chose Jalangi for investigation.
For this caught National Highway 34 from Kolkata. It goes from Dalkhola to Krishnanagar. On the way, a tempo was seen on the roadside in Amdanga block of North 24 Parganas district. It was full of cows and calves.
There were also two policemen near the tempo. When we stopped the car, the policemen said- ‘Take the car forward from here, this is the main road.’
When we started taking photo-videos, the policeman signaled to keep the phone inside and asked to go ahead immediately. We went a little further and stopped the car. Seeing this, the policemen also came there. Said- ‘Take the car from here. Why have you stopped?’
We went ahead and stopped at a tea stall nearby. The chaiwala told that these vehicles carry cows and calves. The policemen take bribe from them and let them go ahead. Those who do not give bribe are investigated.
Deal of cows and calves in Haat, manager to account
After a while the same tempo came out in front of us. We put the car behind him. He stayed at Birohi village of Haringghata in Nadia district. There is a haat of cows and bulls. The manager of the Haat was sitting on the roadside with a table-chair. He calculates everything. Apart from those who buy and sell cows, there are also agents who make deals.
The manager saw us taking photos and videos. Said, ‘Who are you? Why did you take photos and videos? Delete immediately.’ We deleted a couple of photos to show him and moved on. After about two hours’ journey from Birohi, we reached Jalangi.
Now read the story of Jalangi…
The informer said – change my voice too
Now the story I am going to tell has three characters. The first is the India-Bangladesh border, from where smuggling takes place. The second is the intelligence officer of BSF, who gave us full details, but said not to write my name.
The third is an informer, who lives in the village and gives information to them by taking commission from agencies like CID-CBI. He did talk in the video by hiding his face, but has refused to write his name and identity. It was also said that if possible, change my voice a little.
Most of the border opened, only two soldiers at one point
Jalangi village is situated on the banks of Padma river. Padma is one of the major rivers of Bangladesh. Kushtia, Pabna and Rajshahi districts of Bangladesh adjoin it. In India it flows in Murshidabad. Cattle smuggling is happening from this river for many years. Somewhere the river is narrow, sometimes it is wide. Somewhere the flow is fast, sometimes less.
It dries up in some places after rain. After crossing the river for a few steps, it gets Bangladesh. When we reached the banks of the river, we saw that most of the border is open. There is fencing on only a few parts.
The Border Security Force (BSF) is stationed here, but there are only two soldiers at one observation point. They have to handle an area of half to one kilometer. In such a situation, it is almost impossible for them to stop smuggling.
If the river flows fast, smugglers are more active.
Smugglers use banana stems to get the cows across the river. The cow is tied to the stem and thrown into the water. People already on the other side of the river take them out and take them to Bangladesh.
A BSF intelligence officer showed us the video of it. In the video, two calves were seen tied to a banana stem. Their feet were tied. After tearing the stem from the middle, trapped the mouth of the calves in them and threw them in the river. When the soldiers caught sight of them, they brought them to shore. They were kept in the camp by opening the rope. You can see this in the video of the news.
The officer said that the smuggling of animals takes place at night. Time and place keep changing. Sometimes there are attempts to smuggle even during the day. When there is a strong current in the river, smugglers are more active, as monitoring becomes difficult at that time. Even the jawans cannot live on the border.
Smugglers get the people of the village to cultivate banana and jute
When we were on the spot, many people of the village were seen crossing the river and going across it. Talking to him, he said – he goes to farm. Banana and jute are planted here. According to the intelligence officer, it is the smugglers who get the villagers to cultivate jute and bananas, as they can be easily hidden. In return, they give money to the villagers.
A senior BSF officer said that earlier a large number of cows used to come together. At night, our jawans could not stop them, because the number of smugglers is more and the number of soldiers is less. One and a half to two thousand cows together and 300 to 400 smugglers with them.
The smugglers used to shove the cows into the river and used to swim easily across the river. They have bombs and pistols. They used to be in the crowd and would even attack. The smuggling of cows has been less since 2018, but the demand for calves has increased. They are being tied in a banana stem and made to cross the river, so that they do not flow into the water.
This is the story from Kolkata to Jalangi, now know why this is happening and who is behind it…
Investigation revealed that smugglers, police, customs and BSF are involved in this nexus. Know one by one whose role it is.
Benefit from getting network of Indian companies
According to the informer, people on the Bangladesh side have SIMs of Indian companies. Even after crossing the river, India’s network comes for 3 to 4 km. They give signals to each other through the phone itself.
Some mark is made on the cow and calf sent from India. People standing on the other side of the river are told about this. He recognizes the mark and takes it. Smuggling is also happening from Jalangi’s Ghospada, Raipara, Muradpur, Sarkarpara. About 3 thousand people live in these four-five villages. Of these, about 200 people are associated with smuggling gangs.
Smugglers have become more alert after the arrest of Anubrata Mandal. They are now smuggling once a week-15 days instead of daily.
Smuggling economy: Smuggling of 1.5 lakh cows every year
According to BSF officials and informers, the price of cows is decided according to the size and number of cows. Big cows are bought for 30 thousand to 70 thousand rupees. Some middleman buys these from farmers. He takes a commission of 15 to 20 thousand rupees and gives them to the smugglers. In Bangladesh it is sold for one to one and a half lakh rupees. During Eid, the prices increase manifold.
Out of 100 smuggled cows and buffaloes, 15-20 cows are caught and it is tried to show that the smugglers are being caught. We tried talking to Jalangi Police Station staff, BSF personnel and officers about this, but they did not talk on record. Got it right off record.
DIG Amrish Arya of BSF, Sabri Raj Kumar of SP of Murshidabad district and in-charge of Jalangi police station said on cattle smuggling that smuggling is happening, but it has come down already. Now more drugs are being smuggled than cattle.
Not only cows, Jalangi is also a hub for drug smuggling
Apart from cattle smuggling, drugs are also being smuggled from the Indo-Bangladesh border. The route of drug smuggling also passes through Jalangi. The next exclusive story will be on this. In this we will tell how drugs are being transported across the border. How much are smugglers earning? Which drugs are being sent and how are girls becoming a career in it.