A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma gave him relief noting that the “trial is unlikely to commence soon”.

He will however remain in jail as he is yet to get bail in the money laundering case probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the cattle smuggling racket.

Advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for him sais Mondal has been in jail since August 2022 and that there was no likelihood of the trial beginning anytime soon. He further added that the SC had already granted bail to the kingpin or the racket.

Granting Mondal bail, the apex court asked him to surrender his passport and to cooperate in the probe.

The CBI had arrested Mondal on August 12, 2022, in connection with a cattle smuggling case after he skipped several CBI summons. The CBI said it found “direct involvement” of Mondal in the cattle smuggling racket.

Subsequently, the TMC leader was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on November 17, 2022.