Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader and the party’s strongman in Sandeshkhali, Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested from the Minakhan PS area by the West Bengal Police in the wee hours of Thursday amid tight police security. He had been on the run ever since he was named as the prime accused in a case related to an attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on 5 January.
Locals in Sandeshkhali have alleged that the Trinamool Zilla Parishad chairman and his aides had converted acres and acres of agricultural land into fishponds, or bheris. Police are also investigating charges of gangrape against Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides.
Speaking to the media, Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General of Police-South Bengal, said that Sheikh Shahjahan has been arrested for attacking ED officials.
“We have arrested Sheikh Shajahan yesterday night from Minakhan PS area. We will ask for Police remand, let’s see how it goes,” he said.
Thursday morning, senior police officials of Sandeshkhali along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel secured the Basirhat district court where Shahjahan is being kept. Police sources say that in order to maintain law and order in the area, the decision was taken to lodge him in the court premises directly as he has a strong mass following.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, announcing the arrest on X, said: “There was a Court restraint. Thanks to Abhishek Banerjee, the court restraint was removed. The police have done what they were supposed to do.”
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale lauded Abhishek Banerjee for Sheikh Shahjahan’s arrest — “As our National Gen Secy Abhishek Banerjee had rightly pointed out, it was the Calcutta High Court stay order that had restrained the police. We had committed that Sheikh Shahjahan would be arrested within days if the hon’ble HC freed the hands of the police.”
Speaking to the media shortly after Shahjahan’s arrest, BJP MP Dilip Ghosh said: “It took the police over a week to arrest one petty criminal, the big goons won’t ever be arrested here. The TMC leaders claimed he would be arrested within days; I don’t know whose orders the police followed. The people of Sandeshkhali fought against the injustice and the criminal has been arrested. The entire country was watching what was happening in Sandeshkhali.”
Calcutta High Court had Tuesday clarified there is no stay on West Bengal Police from arresting Sheikh Shahjahan and that the court had only stayed the special investigation team (SIT) formed by a single-judge bench on 7 February to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan, previously.
The TMC had claimed that the HC’s 7 February stay order on the SIT probe was stopping the police from arresting Sheikh Shahjahan.
On Wednesday, the West Bengal government sought fresh clarification on the order by the division bench led by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, where the HC reiterated there was no stay on the arrest and also paved the way for the ED and CBI to be free to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan.
He was arrested within 24 hours of this order.
Over the past week, top police officials, including the director general of police (DGP), had rushed to Sandeshkhali as protests intensified demanding Shahjahan’s arrest. DGP Rajiv Kumar spent the night on the riverine settlements and held a series of meetings at the Sandeshkhali Police Station.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: Sandeshkhali case is no Hindu-Muslim issue. TMC and BJP must stop with their blame games