Birbhum District Police in West Bengal arrested Minar Mondal, a relative of influential stone-quarry owner Tulu Mondal, on Thursday, 31 July 2025, following nearly 24 hours of raids at his residence that yielded over ₹28 crore in unaccounted cash and 15 kilograms of gold valued at more than ₹21 crore. The combined estimated value of the seizure stands at approximately ₹50 crore, according to the investigating team.

How the Raid Unfolded

The search operation was triggered by the arrest of seven dacoits by officials of Mohammad Bazar police station in Birbhum the previous Tuesday. Acting on information obtained from the detained group, investigators traced a cache of cash and gold to Minar's residence. Raids commenced on Wednesday afternoon and continued through the night, with police requisitioning currency-counting machines from a local bank branch to tally the seized notes.

Counting and recounting was completed by Thursday morning, confirming the total cash figure at just over ₹28 crore. Minar was formally arrested the same morning, and police departed his home carrying trunks loaded with the seized cash and gold.

What Minar Mondal Admitted

Minar initially declined to answer police queries about the origin of the assets. He subsequently admitted, according to Birbhum Superintendent of Police Bidit Raj Bundesh, that the money and gold were sourced from a syndicated crime racket. He was taken first to a local police station before being produced before a district court in Suri, where the public prosecutor sought police custody.

The Tulu Mondal Connection

Locals say Minar, a former driver with the state-run transport corporation, was deeply involved in the stone-quarry business of Tulu Mondal. Tulu Mondal is described as a close confidant of Anubrata Mondal, the former All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) district president in Birbhum — a detail that has drawn immediate political attention.

Tulu Mondal has previously faced accusations of illegal stone mining and was named in a cattle smuggling case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had placed him under scrutiny in 2022, conducting raids on his residence and office. Investigators are now examining whether the assets recovered from Minar's home were ultimately owned by Tulu Mondal.

Wider Significance

The seizure is one of the largest single-location cash-and-gold recoveries in Birbhum's recent history, and it comes against the backdrop of ongoing scrutiny of the district's stone-quarry economy, which critics have long alleged operates through opaque syndicates. Notably, this is not the first time Birbhum's political-criminal nexus has drawn central and state investigative attention — the district featured prominently in earlier ED and CBI probes linked to post-poll violence and cattle smuggling.

The outcome of Minar Mondal's custody hearing and any subsequent ED involvement will determine whether this case widens into a larger financial investigation.