Mobbed & thrashed — attack on ED team not 1st time central agencies faced hostility in Bengal

In February 2019, CBI officers were detained outside residence of then Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. Subsequently, central forces were deployed outside CBI, ED offices.

A vehicle which was damaged by the supporters of TMC strongman Sahajahan Sheikh | PTI

Kolkata: The mob attack on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district is not the first such episode in this part of the country.

In 2016, an ED official probing the Saradha chit fund scam was reportedly thrashed in Hooghly district. The Assistant Enforcement Officer (AEO) was beaten up by eight-nine people suspected to be TMC workers while he was buying groceries. 

Matters came to a head in February 2019 when CBI officers were detained by the police outside the residence of former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. The CBI team had reached there to question Kumar in connection with the alleged Rose Valley and Saradha ponzi scams.

Subsequently, central forces were deployed outside the offices of the CBI and the ED at Nizam Palace and CGO Complex in Kolkata.

Angry Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters hurled stones at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office in May 2021 after the arrest of four party leaders in the Narada case. Central forces personnel had to barricade the gates and push back the agitators to secure the office premises where the TMC leaders were kept. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was also present inside the office. 

In the latest incident, an ED team along with CRPF personnel had reached TMC convenor and strongman Sahajahan Sheikh’s residence to carry out a search in connection with the alleged ration distribution scam. 

The door of Sheikh’s residence was locked from inside, but his mobile location indicated that he was inside the house, the ED said in a statement.

“Thereafter, ED team was taken by surprise that within half an hour, a mob of around 800-1000 persons marching towards them with weapons in their hands such as lathis, stones, bricks etc. and gheraoed the ED officials and CRPF personnel. Suddenly, they started attacking the ED officials and CRPF personnel and started pelting stones and brick at them and attacked the officers as well as CRPF personnel with stones, lathis, using physical force and raised slogans against the ED officers,” it added. 

One assistant director rank officer and two other officers received stitches on their heads at a Kolkata hospital. ED sources told ThePrint they have lodged a police complaint and have also requested the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide additional security cover for its officers and office in West Bengal. 

Multi-crore ration ‘scam’

After FIRs were registered by the West Bengal Police, the ED had taken over the investigation in the alleged PDS scam. It then alleged that rice mills had siphoned PDS grains in collusion with ration distributors, dealers and other parties causing loss to the exchequer.

The ED also said that the alleged proceeds of crime were generated under the garb of paddy procurement in the name of fake beneficiaries. These alleged proceeds of crime, according to the investigating agency, were laundered through various companies under the control of Trinamool minister Jyoti Priya Mallick. Sheikh is a close aide of the arrested minister.

Accordingly, the ED attached 101 properties seized approximately Rs 20 crore during the course of investigation. It later arrested Mallick on 27 October 2023 and filed a prosecution complaint against him before a special PMLA court, Kolkata on 12 December.

‘Braveheart officers’ 

West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose met the three injured ED officers at the hospital. “They are braving it very well. They are bravehearts ready to sacrifice their lives for law and order maintenance, save democracy and save the people of Bengal and this will not go unnoticed,” he told the media. 

Condemning the attack, Leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari said he had informed the Union Home Minister about the developments and sought appropriate action. BJP Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar wrote to the home minister seeking an NIA probe into the incident. 

Trinamool minister Sashi Panja said that the BJP does not have the right to claim moral high ground. “The central agency provoked the villagers and that’s the reason such violent scenes took place. We do not support any kind of violence, but the BJP should be the last ones to raise their voice. Their own MoS Nisith Pramanik has a murder case pending against him,” she told ThePrint.

(Edited by Tony Rai)