Trinamul MP Dev Interrogated by ED in Delhi Over Alleged Cattle Smuggling Money Trail

On Wednesday, actor and Trinamul MP Deepak Adhikari, also known as Dev, spent more than eight hours being questioned by agents from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in their Delhi headquarters.

Dev was called in relation to the central agency's investigation into the purported money trail in cattle smuggling throughout Bengal, according to senior ED officials.


In response to the ED summons delivered on February 15, the two-term MP from West Midnapore's Ghatal seat showed up at the ED headquarters at 11 a.m.

He left at 7:30 p.m.

"I told earlier that I will respond every time I am summoned, and I'm following the same," Dev said to media in Delhi prior to heading into the ED earlier that morning.

"I postponed my day's filming to attend this meeting. I have no criminal record, and I have total confidence in the investigative team and the current investigation," Dev said.

Days after the well-known Tollywood actor decided to remain with Trinamul and quit from three Ghatal committees, Dev received a summons from the ED. There had been rumors after the resignations that Dev would not be running for the Ghatal Lok Sabha seat this time.

Dev subsequently clarified that he valued Mamata Banerjee's, the chief minister and leader of Trinamul, much.

"Politics will not leave me even if I want to leave politics," Dev had said.

When reporters asked Dev whether his political action led to the ED summons, he said, "I would like not to talk about this right now."

An ED officer in a high position declined to provide specifics of the questioning. "We wanted to clarify a few things that have emerged from our investigation so far in the alleged cattle smuggling case," stated the officer.

Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition and a BJP MLA from Nandigram, had previously claimed that Dev had received Rs 5 crore for shooting a movie from Enamul Haque, the main suspect in the suspected cattle-smuggling case.

Dev had been interrogated by the CBI, which is also looking into the claimed case, for more than five hours in February 2022.

At that point, the MP from Trinamul claimed not to know Enamul Haque and not to have done business with him financially.

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