The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today issued fresh summons to Trinamul Congress leader and party’s Birbhum leader Anubrata Mandal asking him to appear again next week.

The CBI sources said that today’s quizzing for four hours was “inconclusive” as the leader left the session midway with many questions remained unanswered.

Anubrata left the office at 2 pm for his prior appointment with doctors at SSKM hospital.

Sources in the CBI said that Anubrata had been sent notice by the agency asking him to appear before it next week with relevant documents  of his financial transactions  supporting his claims made to the investigators today.

Today’s move by the Trinamul Congress Birbhum strongman, who had volunteered to depose before the agency at its Nizam Palace office today came after missing seven summons from the agency for interrogation in the cattle and coal smuggling cases.

Mandal, on Thursday, turned up at the CBI’s Nizam Palace hospital at 9.50 am.

Anubrata voluntarily appeared at the CBI office just 12 hours after the former state education minister and the Trinamul Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee was grilled for four hours at the same office. Chatterjee was being probed in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam.

Incidentally, Mandal’s voluntary appearance also happens two days ahead of the May 21 deadline for him. In his last communique to the CBI, Anubrata had informed that till May 21 he would not be able to meet the central agency sleuths as a medical report of the state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital had advised him complete bed rest till that period.

However, to the surprise of the CBI sleuths, they received a communique from the Trinamul leader late on Wednesday evening about just an hour after Partha Chatterjee left the office.

In that communique, Mandal had said that he would be reaching the CBI office on Thursday morning by 10 am.

After leaving the CBI office at around 2 pm, Mandal headed straight to SSKM hospital and visited the Wodburn ward, where he was examined by the doctors.

Accordingly, on Thursday morning, Mandal started from his residence at Chinar Park in the northern outskirts of Kolkata at 9.10 am and finally his vehicle reached the CBI’s Nizam Palace Office in central Kolkata.

He refused to answer the queries of the mediapersons as he reached for the elevator. A team of CBI sleuths, led by the agency’s joint director, Prakash Srivastav was waiting there with a seven-page list of questions.

Legal brains believe that in all probability, Mandal has exhausted all his legal options to avoid the CBI questioning, and hence he decided to join the probe.

Political observers feel that the event of Partha Chatterjee, currently the state commerce and industries minister, being compelled to face the CBI grilling might have made Mandal feel that he should voluntarily appear at the CBI office without further delay.