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Sandeshkhali row: Court deadline to handover Sheikh Shahjahnan ends; CBI team at Bengal Police HQ
Earlier today, the Calcutta High Court again directed the West Bengal government to handover Sheikh Shahjahan to the CBI by 4.15 pm.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday again directed the West Bengal government to transfer the investigation into the attack on Enforcement Directorate officials earlier this year to CBI and hand over suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan to the agency by 4.15 pm.
Following the court's order, a team of CBI arrived at Bhabani Bhaban Police Headquarters in Kolkata, according to ANI.
The high court had passed a similar order on Tuesday but the West Bengal police refused it, claiming that the state has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against its order.
After a standoff outside the Crime Investigation Department (CID) office in Kolkata for two hours, the CBI teams returned for the day.
Also Read | PM Modi meets women victims from Sandeshkhali during Bengal visit
The order is the latest in a series of setbacks to the Bengal government in the high-profile case that comes just weeks ahead of general elections.
The island village of Sandeshkhali in the 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.
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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.
HC order against concept of federalism: West Bengal govt to Supreme Court
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government in its appeal before the Supreme Court called Tuesday's decision by the Calcutta High Court against the concept of federalism, reported ANI.
In its plea before the top, the Bengal government mentioned the way in which the Calcutta High Court passed the order, uploaded it by 3:30 pm and asked the West Bengal government to comply with the directions by 4.30 pm made it remediless.
"Because it is trite law that the provision of appeal as provided in a statute cannot be ousted by a Judicial Order, which has been done in the present case, and which has rendered the State Government. Remediless while negating the concepts of Federalism, where without any material on record, and the basis on surmises and conjectures as well as a media trial being conducted the Division Bench has on its own accord, mixed several issues to pass the Impugned Order, which is factually and legally incorrect," West Bengal government said, according to ANI.
