Absconding Shah of Sarberia: How Shahjahan became a law unto himself in Sandeshkhali
Telegraph | 25 February 2024
Minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury is unlikely to forget how Sheikh Shahjahan’s men attacked his convoy when he visited the Trinamul strongman’s home turf of Sarberia in Sandeshkhali with relief material after Cyclone Yaas mauled swathes of coastal Bengal in May 2021.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader and mass education and library minister had come with food and clothes to help 400-odd families in the Sarberia-Agarhati gram panchayat. But Shahjahan, the upa pradhan, would not let him enter.
“Around 200 people armed with bamboo sticks stopped the convoy on Basanti Highway and asked the minister to leave the place,” a policeman who was posted in the area at the time told The Telegraph.
“The local people told him it was ‘Shahjahan’s area’ and no one could distribute any relief material. As the minister argued with them, the mob went on the rampage, vandalising the vehicles in the convoy and looting the relief material. They pushed and shoved Siddiqullah Saheb and even threatened to kill him.”
The policeman added: “Finally, a team from the Nazat police station rescued him and escorted him back to Calcutta. The minister informed the police and the party higher-ups but nothing happened to Shahjahan.”
When this newspaper on Friday asked Chowdhury whether he remembered the “hamla” (attack), he said “yes” but added that he didn’t want any fresh controversy. An aide to Chowdhury, who didn’t want to be named, told this correspondent: “Shahjahan’s men threatened to kill him (the minister) in front of the police. We can only say that no one is above the law, and those behind the atrocities in Sandeshkhali will be punished.”
The incident reflects how Shahjahan, son of a marginal farmer who began his political career as a CPM activist in 2000, became a law unto himself in large parts of the Sandeshkhali Assembly segment.
Shajahan’s brazen
domination of Sandeshkhali came out in the open on January 5, when his people
attacked an Enforcement Directorate team that had come to raid his home in
connection with the PDS irregularities that have led to the arrest of his
biggest backer, minister Jyotipriya Mallick.
“He
could do anything, even stop a minister and one of the tallest Muslim leaders
in the state. Shajahan’s public demonstration of his ability to humiliate
Siddiqullah Saheb helped him consolidate his position locally,” a state
government official who had formerly been posted in the area said.
Shahjahan,
48, began his career as one of the leaders of a CPM-backed union of local
auto-rickshaw operators in early 2000. He cut his teeth as a political activist
under Muslem Sheikh, the then CPM chief of the Sarberia-Agarhati gram panchayat.
“He
has a very humble family background. He used to wash cars in Sarberia and hang around with the
auto-rickshaw union leaders.... In CPM parlance, he was only a member of the
‘party cadre’, without any portfolio,” a local villager said.
He
said Shahjahan had been among the first of the local “comrades” to switch to
the Trinamul Congress after the change of guard in Bengal in 2011.
Several
villagers who spoke to this correspondent, on the condition of anonymity, said
it didn’t take Shahjahan long to rise up the Trinamul ranks. He became
deputy chief of the gram panchayat after the 2018 rural elections, and won a
seat in the North 24-Parganas zilla parishad in 2023.
“The
most striking thing about him is his business acumen. He realised early that
pisciculture was a money-spinner, and that he therefore needed water bodies,”
said a middle-aged man who has known Shahjahan’s family for decades.
He
said Shahjahan began his pisciculture business around 2013-14 by taking over a
few farmers’ land on lease and converting them into bheris under legal
agreements.
“His
business model changed around 2018, when he became deputy chief of the gram
panchayat. He began forcing farmers to part with their land by signing lease
agreements while not paying them the agreed sum,” a villager said.
Such
large-scale land-grab would hardly have been possible without using force in
this rural belt because of the villagers’ attachment to their ancestral land
and the lack of employment opportunities beyond agriculture.
“He
realised he could carry on with his land-grab project only by convincing people
that he was above the law, so that complaints were not lodged against him,” a
source in the administration, who has seen fertile farmland turned
systematically into bheris, said.
Local
people narrated several incidents that showcased Shahjahan’s unbridled power.
“In
June 2019, the then Sandeshkhali-II block development officer, Kaushik
Bhattacharya, was beaten up in his office by goons backed by Shahjahan and his aide
Shib Prasad Hazra,” a state government official said.
“The
BDO had declined to clear a fabricated bill of around Rs 1 crore relating to a
government project. But nothing happened to Shahjahan as he was close to
minister Mallik, who is now in jail for his alleged involvement in the PDS
(public distribution system) scam.”
Multiple
sources in the district administration said that BDO Bhattacharya, who is now
posted in Malda, had been the first to expose how Shahjahan was running a
parallel administration in the area. Bhattacharya’s whistle-blowing, however,
had little impact, and he was transferred to a north Bengal district after the
incident.
Contacted
by this correspondent on Friday afternoon, Bhattacharya said: “I don’t have any
comments to offer.”
A
former colleague of Bhattacharya narrated how the BDO — who had to be
hospitalised after the assault — was harassed after the incident because he was
firm on lodging a police complaint.
“His
attempt to lodge a complaint initially drew a blank as Mallick, the then food
and supplies minister, was against it. Everyone knew that Shahjahan was the
minister’s man,” a senior police officer said.
Finally,
a complaint was lodged following an intervention from the then district
magistrate, Antara Acharya. Shahjahan and his men had to return to the treasury
a large sum they had been accused of embezzling. “But Shahjahan was spared
any legal action,” the source said.
An
official recalled another incident from 2019, when Shahjahan and his henchmen
allegedly “seized” a
state transport bus following a dispute over fares.
“The
transport department intervened, recovering the bus and rescuing the employees.
But Shahjan did not face any consequences,” the police officer said.
He
said that such was Shahjahan’s clout that some of his men — accused of
involvement in an incident in 2021 in which a civic volunteer was killed and an
assistant sub-inspector of police injured — remained at large for months as he
offered them shelter.
“Finally,
Shahjahan got these people to surrender before the police,” he said.
A
state government official said: “Now, when I hear people saying that the local
police station used to tell villagers to lodge complaints with Shahjahan if
they had any grievances, I remember how police teams from other parts of Bengal
would come in search of a criminal and would be asked to get in touch with
Shahjahan.”
The
alleged atrocities on women, which have become a huge political issue in the
state, reflected the sense of impunity among Shahjahan’s henchmen.
“Their
wealth, political clout and belief that they were above the law were the reason
they dared call women over to the party office at ungodly hours,” a middle-aged
villager said.
That
women are coming forward and lodging complaints is a healthy development in
Sandeshkhali, he said.
“People
here were too afraid to lodge complaints against him. I think there is still a
certain degree of fear. Shahjahan may have fled but 10 to 15 of his close
associates are still around,” he said.
“They
may be lying low now, but there’s always the possibility of these amanush
(inhuman or brutish people) targeting the complainants after the media glare
starts fading.”
The
expression “amanush” carries a special connotation for Sandeshkhali, where the 1975
Bengali film Amanush — starring Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore and Utpal Dutt —
was shot.
Several
people pointed out the PWD bungalow near the Sandeshkhali ferry ghat where
Uttam Kumar had put up while the film was shot. They told this correspondent
stories they had heard from their elders about the superstar’s friendly
behaviour with the villagers.
“Who
would have known that a real-life amanush would ruin our lives?” a woman said,
gazing at the building that is now locally known as “Uttam Kumar Bungalow”.