Bengal Police hands over Sheikh Shahjahan to CBI after high court sets deadline

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the West Bengal CID were locked in a custody battle over the controversial TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan

Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, a prime accused in the case related to attack on ED officials in January this year, was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation by the state police on the orders of the Calcutta high court on Wednesday.

Sheikh Shahjahan, who is alleged to have masterminded the attack on ED officials in Sandeshkhali on January 5, was arrested by the West Bengal police on February 29. (File)

CBI lodged three first information reports (FIRs) on Tuesday in connection with the attack on ED officials. On January 5, ED officials were assaulted when they went to search the house of Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali. Later that day, a separate team of ED officials came under attack when they went to search the house of Shankar Adhya, a TMC leader, in Bongaon.

“Shahjahan, who was in custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police, was handed over to us on the orders of the Calcutta high court. Further investigation is going on,” said a senior CBI official.

Shahjahan, a TMC zilla parishad leader who is alleged to have masterminded the attack on ED officials on January 5 when they went to search his house in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam, was arrested by the state police on February 29. He had been on the run since January 5. The state CID later took over the investigation.

On Tuesday, CID and CBI were locked in a custody battle over the controversial TMC leader, with the former citing an appeal by the state government in the Supreme Court as grounds for refusing to hand over Shahjahan to the latter as mandated by a high court order.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Calcutta high court transferred the investigation into the attack on ED officials to CBI and asked the state police to hand over the suspended TMC leader to the federal agency by 4.30pm on Tuesday, lambasting the state police for trying to “shield” the embattled strongman battling charges of extortion, embezzlement, land grab, and sexual violence.

On Wednesday, ED moved a contempt petition before a division bench presided by justice Harish Tandon against the state government claiming that it did not implement March 5 orders of a division bench presided by chief justice TS Sivagnanam.

“We do not find any fetter or impediment on our part in not directing the implementation of the said order in a pending contempt application despite the fact that a Special Leave Petition is pending before the Supreme Court.

Furthermore, the fact remains there is no interim order of stay of the operation of the said order passed as of this time,” stated the bench of justice Harish Tandon while directing the state police to hand over Shahjahan to CBI by 4.15 pm on Wednesday.

The ED has already provisionally attached moveable and immovable assets worth ₹12.78 crore of Shahjahan. These include agricultural land, fish farms and apartment in Sandeshkhali. Two bank accounts were also attached.

Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas has been on the edge since last month with village women hitting the roads demanding the arrest of Shahjahan and his aides over allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing.

Even though the opposition has been alleging that the Mamata Banerjee government was shielding him, the state government maintained that he couldn’t be arrested because of a stay order on his arrest by the Calcutta high court.

A division bench of chief justice Sivagnanam, however, cleared the air on February 26 saying that police were free to arrest him. It also said that CBI and ED too were free to arrest him. The Criminal Investigation Department of the state police took over the investigation after Shahjahan was arrested and even sent notices to the ED officials.

“The state police had played a hide-and-seek methodology in all probabilities to shield the accused who undoubtedly is a highly politically influential person who has demonstrably shown that he is and would be in a position to influence the investigation if allowed to rest with the state police,” the order of chief justice Sivagnanam’s bench on Tuesday had stated.