Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS): A special court of Central Bureau of Investigation at Asansol in West Burdwan district on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Trinamool Congress strongman and the party's Birbhum district president, Anubrata Mondal in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

At the same time the judge of the said court Rajesh Chakraborty allowed the CBI sleuths to interrogate Mondal within the correction home premises anytime between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. In fact, the CBI made an appeal to the special court for permission to question Mondal within the correctional home premises.

On Thursday, the CBI counsel informed the court that 48 additional witnesses in the cattle- smuggling cases have been questioned by the investigating officials since the time the charge sheet in the case was filed and these witnesses have also been named in the agency's report to the court.

The next hearing in the matter is scheduled on January 19.

On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta rejected the bail plea of Mondal in the cattle- smuggling scam. Earlier Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri had rejected the plea related to the ED's FIR earlier and on Wednesday the division bench also rejected his bail plea.

On Thursday, Mondal was presented at the special court of CBI in Asansol at around 11 a.m. His counsel did not move any bail plea. Unlike the other days of his appearance at this court, on Thursday, there was not much crowd of Mondal's followers at the court premises.