Kolkata, Jan 27 (IANS): A special CBI court at Asansol has issued an arrest warrant against "absconding" TMC youth leader Vinay Kumar Mishra in a cross-border cow smuggling racket in West Bengal, sources said on Wednesday.

One of the Trinamool Youth Congress' General Secretaries, Mishra was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) several times in the last one month but he skipped all summonses.

The last summons was served on January 19, the sources said. The agency had also issued a Lookout Notice against him.

The CBI had recently raided Mishra's residence in Kolkata's Rashbihari Avenue area but failed to arrest him since he is "absconding", the sources added.

The crackdown came ahead of state Assembly polls in April-May this year. The central agency is now probing the larger conspiracy angle to the cattle-smuggling racket.

The CBI had filed an FIR in September last year against six persons, including some Border Security Force and Customs officers, who were allegedly bribed by international cattle smugglers.