Birbhum Police on Wednesday raided the house of a retired government bus driver in Deucha village and seized gold bars and biscuits worth around Rs 21.5 crore, along with two trunkloads of cash, according to a report by The Times of India. The cash haul had crossed Rs 28.5 crore by late evening, with bundles of notes being counted till the report time.
Police questioned Minar Mondal, owner of the two-storey house and a relative of influential stone trader Tulu Mondal, along with his son, over the source of the seized wealth and whether they had stashed money and gold at any other location. Officials reportedly used five cash-counting machines and several gold-weighing scales to assess the haul.
According to TOI, the entire area was cordoned off for the search operation, which began early in the morning. Several senior district police officers, including ASP Nilesh Gaikwad and DSP (Law and Order) Kunal Mukherjee, supervised the raid.
The report said Tulu Mondal, a prominent stone trader in Birbhum, had served as a stone revenue collector during the tenure of the Trinamool government. After Minar Mondal retired from his government job, he was allegedly entrusted with a key responsibility by Tulu.
“Minar was in charge of collecting revenue from stone-filled trucks at one of the seven toll gates in the quarry belt of Deucha. Investigators are trying to find out whether he had siphoned off a chunk of the money meant for the govt coffers," sources told the publication.
Tulu Mondal was considered a close associate of Anubrata Mondal, once a Trinamool strongman in the district, the report said, adding that he has been accused of operating illegal stone quarries and was implicated in a cattle smuggling case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided his home and office in 2022. Within 48 hours of that raid, district police arrested him in a murder case. He was later released on bail and allegedly went into hiding after the Assembly election results were declared on May 4.
Tulu Mondal had drawn public attention in December 2024 after hosting an extravagant wedding reception for his daughter at a venue modelled on Udaipur's Taj Lake Palace, attended by celebrities from Bollywood and the Bengali entertainment industry.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari praised the police operation in a post on X, saying, “The work of our law enforcement agencies in taking strict action against the sand mafia is commendable. Birbhum Police conducted a major raid at the hideout of illegal operator Tulu Mondal — alias Mohammad Najibuddin — in the Mohammad Bazar police station area.”
He further wrote, “Let it be unequivocally clear: no person with a chequered past who has amassed wealth through the exploitation of public resources and hobnobbing with the then ruling political party will be spared.” He also commended the Director General of Police, the Birbhum Superintendent of Police and district police personnel for the operation.
