Hand Shahjahan to CBI, Calcutta HC tells Bengal
West Bengal police, however, refused to hand over Sandeshkhali strongman Sheikh Shahjahan to CBI, sparking a custody battle following high court order.
The West Bengal police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were locked in a custody battle on Tuesday, with the former citing an appeal by the state government in the Supreme Court as grounds for refusing to hand over Sandeshkhali strongman Sheikh Shahjahan to the latter as mandated by a high court order.
Earlier in the day, the Calcutta high court transferred the investigation into the attack on Enforcement Directorate officials earlier this year to CBI and asked the West Bengal government to hand over suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan to the agency, lambasting the state police for trying to “shield” the embattled strongman battling charges of extortion, embezzlement, land grab, and sexual violence.
The high court asked that Shahjahan, who was arrested on February 29, be handed over by 4.30pm, but the police refused to transfer custody, arguing that the government had challenged the order in the Supreme Court. After a standoff outside the Crime Investigation Department (CID) office in Kolkata for two hours, CBI teams returned for the day.
Also Read: TMC's Sheikh Shahjahan nabbed at last after high court push
“The case which has been registered by ED, investigating into the public distribution system scam involves highly politically powerful persons which include the accused Shahjahan. Thus, what is required, is a fair, honest and complete investigation and this alone will retain the public confidence in the impartial working of the state agencies,” said a division bench of high court chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya.
“We have no hesitation in our mind to hold that this confidence has been shaken and there can be no better case than the case on hand which requires to be transferred to be investigated by CBI.”
The order is the latest in a series of setbacks suffered by the Bengal government in the high-profile case that comes just weeks ahead of general elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a rally in the area — his third in the state in a week — on Wednesday.
Also Read: ED attaches assets worth ₹12.78 crore in probe against Sheikh Shahjahan
The island village of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district has been in the eye of the storm since January 5, when ED officers arrived to search the home of Shahjahan, a close aide of former minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, who was arrested in October last year in connection with an alleged ration distribution scam. The ED team came under attack from an angry mob, leaving three officers injured.
But, on February 7, other violent protests began erupting in Sandeshkhali and other nearby villages, with groups of residents led mostly by local women, alleging sexual harassment at the hands of local TMC leaders including Shahjahan, his brother Sirajuddin, and other associates Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar. Other villages have claimed that Shahjahan and his associates also indulged in landgrab.
Shahjahan, a former TMC zila parishad leader, was arrested by the state police on the orders of the high court on February 29. The CID later took over the investigation.
Also Read: Why didn’t Shahjahan’s arrest warrant mention crimes against women, asks BJP
The state government has repeatedly accused the Opposition of politicising the event. But the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to use Sandeshkhali as a referendum on the TMC government’s grip on law and order in the state. A number of national panels — including the National Commission of Women, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes and the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes — have visited the area and later said that they documented serious allegations against Sheikh and his associates.
After the attack on ED, three FIRs were registered by the police — the first on the basis of a complaint by ED’s deputy director, the second a suo motu case, and a third against ED on the basis of a complaint lodged by the caretaker of Shahjahan’s house.
The 45-year-old strongman is currently in CID custody, booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 353 (using criminal force to deter public servant), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to public servant), 307 (attempt to murder), 395 (dacoity) and 397 (causing grievous hurt with weapons during dacoity among others.
In the high court on Tuesday, advocate general Kishore Datta argued that the state CID was examining the allegations and added “all possible sections” against Shahjahan, including IPC Section 307.
But the court rejected the argument.
“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 said.
The division bench noted that it had on February 7 stayed a single bench order constituting a special investigation team and restrained the West Bengal police from proceeding with the probe in the cases registered by them in connection with the attack on ED officials.
The bench said that despite such an order, the case stood transferred to the state CID and they issued notices to the ED officials.
“Thus, this act of the state police would be sufficient to hold that the state police are totally biased and every attempt is being made to delay the investigation in order to protect the accused who has been absconding for more than 50 days,” the bench observed.
The court noted that Shahjahan was a “strongman” in the locality and enjoyed powerful connections.
The order sparked a political controversy.
“The Hon’ble Calcutta high court has once again exposed the failed state of West Bengal and its compromised police machinery by transferring the CID investigation pertaining to assault on ED Officials at Sandeshkhali and Bongaon to the CBI. I wholeheartedly welcome the verdict of the Hon’ble first division bench of the Calcutta high court,” leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari posted on X.
“I won’t like to comment in this as the state government and administration is looking into it. There are various stages in the judiciary. If an order or a direction has been given, there is scope to challenge it in the higher court or bench,” Kunal Ghosh, TMC leader, told reporters.
