Kolkata, Jul 20 (IANS): Rajesh Pradhan, a 2003 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, will now lead the probe into the alleged multi-crore coal and cattle smuggling scams in West Bengal as the new Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (Kolkata Zone).

Pradhan was serving as the Deputy Inspector General of the CBI. He will be replacing N. Venu Gopal, who has been transferred as the Joint Director of Hyderabad Zone. Pradhan has been appointed in the new chair for a period of five years.

Venu Gopal became the Joint Director of CBI's Kolkata Zone in June last year, replacing his predecessor Pankaj Srivastava. However, his replacement by Pradhan just within a year has now led to conjectures that the move has been made to accelerate the pace of the investigation into the coal and cattle smuggling cases.

Already a number of heavyweight leaders of ruling Trinamool Congress have been questioned by the both CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the coal case.

In the cattle case, Trinamool strongman and the party’s Birbhum district President Anubrata Mondal is already in judicial custody at Tihar Jail in Delhi, along with his daughter Sukanya Mondal.