The West Bengal Police found Shahjahan Sheikh early on Thursday morning, the Trinamool Congress leader and the party’s strongman in Sandeshkhali, who had been missing for 55 days.
In cases of land grabs and sexual harassment that arose after violent protests in Sandeshkhali island of North 24 Parganas district, Sheikh and his associates are among the main accused. He had been missing since January 5, when his supporters ambushed a group of ED officers close to his Sandeshkhali home.
According to police sources who spoke with The Indian Express, “The West Bengal Police arrested Sheikh Shahjahan this morning.”
The police said that Shahjahan was caught up after midnight from the North 24 Parganas district. He was brought to Basirhat court after his arrest and is presently being held there in the court’s lock-up.
The TMC leader’s actions were reportedly being watched for a while, according to the police. Before the arrest, the team had been keeping an eye on his whereabouts for a few days, according to the authorities.
TMC National General Saket Gokhale responded to the news by writing on social networking site X, “As our Natl Gen Sec @abhishekaitc had rightly pointed out, the police were restrained by a Calcutta HC stay order.” We further promised that if the Honourable HC released the police’s hands, Sheikh Shahjahan would be taken into custody within days. The High Court clarified on February 26 that WB Police can arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. And the West Bengal Police have now detained him for less than 72 hours.
“Now remember—the Modi government never arrested Brij Bhushan Sharan, despite numerous protests across the country,” he continued. Despite all of his transgressions, he is still a BJP member of the Lok Sabha. That is the distinction between Mamata Banerjee’s and Narendra Modi’s criminal protection.
While this was going on, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh called for the arrest of BJP leader Suvendhu Adhikari.
“State police have taken action. Let the CBI now detain Alchemist Chit Fund brand ambassadors Mithun Chakraborty and Shuvendu Adhikari in connection with the Narada case. Arrest the hero of barbarism, Brij Bhushan. Allow the ED to apprehend the nation’s thieves. Police operations were impeded by the court’s obstruction. The police have now completed their task, according to the TMC spokesman.
Santanu Sen, the TMC MP, praised the state government for the initiative as well. His apprehension demonstrates that our administration adheres to “rajdharma” in an administrative capacity. Similar to how we had dealt with Partha Chatterjee and Jyoti Priya Mallick, we have also dealt with Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar. Additionally, Sheikh Shahjahan was recently taken into custody.
“Abhishek Banerjee had stated that the police couldn’t arrest him because of the court’s stay order,” he continued. Within three to four days after the stay order was lifted, he was taken into custody. In BJP-ruled areas, leaders who are accused of crimes are free to move about, but in other places, our administration treats allies equally harshly. The TMC is a good teacher of “rajdharma” for the BJP.
Meanwhile, the BJP connected the arrest to the saffron party’s ongoing protests about the issue.
“This government was compelled to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan due to the continuous agitation by the BJP,” stated Sukanta Majumdar, the state head of the West Bengal BJP. The administration was in a state of denial. They were refusing to even acknowledge that anything had occurred. We would force the administration to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan, as I had previously stated. Today, Mamata Banerjee and the government were forced to arrest him because of the BJP’s and the women’s agitation in Sandeshkhali.
On Monday, the Calcutta High Court clarified that Sheikh’s arrest is ongoing. Rather, the court only overturned a February 7 judge’s order to form a Special Investigation Team to look into claims that ED officers were attacked while attempting to raid Sheikh’s residence (on January 5). During the hearing, the bench chastised the state administration for not apprehending Sheikh for over 50 days.
