Truck hits car, kills 2, injures witness against jailed suspended TMC leader
Bholanath Ghosh is a key witness in the case related to a mob attack on ED officials when they went to search Sheikh Shahjahan’s house in January 2024
A key witness against jailed suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan in a case of a mob attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials was injured, and his son and driver were killed when a truck hit their car in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas while they were on their way to a court on Wednesday.
Bholanath Ghosh, the witness, was rushed to a hospital in Minakhan and later to Kolkata. His son, Satyajit, and driver Sahanur Mollah were killed. The truck driver was absconding.
Ghosh told reporters that he was in the back seat, and his son was next to the driver. “As we approached Boyermari, the truck coming from the opposite direction suddenly came towards us and hit us head-on. Our vehicle fell into a roadside ditch. I was rescued in an unconscious state. I feel that it was planned. The administration will be able to tell,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh’s son, Biswajit, alleged that it was not an accident but a murder orchestrated on Shahjahan’s orders. “My father is a witness in the case in which Shahjahan is an accused. They were going to court when they were murdered. Two leaders of the Nazat panchayat did this on the orders of Shahjahan. I came to know that the truck was waiting for the car on the highway. It is not an accident. It is a murder,” he told journalists.
A local police officer said a case has been registered and an investigation is going on.
In February 2024, protests erupted in Sandeshkhali with villagers, mostly women, demanding the arrest of Shahjahan and his aides over allegations of land grabbing and sexual assault.
The Calcutta high court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe as Shahjahan and his aides Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar were arrested. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the mob attack case against Shahjahan.
Shahjahan was known to be a close aide of former minister Jyotipriyo Mallick, who is on bail in a case related to alleged irregularities in the public distribution system.
