Sheikh and his aides are among the key accused in cases of land grab and sexual harassment that surfaced following violent protests in Sandeshkhali island of North 24 Parganas district. Sheikh has been on the run since January 5 after a team of ED officials was attacked by a mob of his supporters near his residence in Sandeshkhali. The team had gone to his residence to conduct searches in connection with the ration ‘scam’.
The clarification was made after the ED and CBI told the court that they have serious reservations about West Bengal Police probing the allegations against the TMC leader.
State Advocate General Kishore Datta mentioned the matter before a division bench headed by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, seeking some clarifications in a February 26 order in which it had ordered the arrest of Sheikh by the state police.
The court had on Monday clarified that there is no stay on Sheikh’s arrest and it had only stayed a single judge’s order on February 7 to constitute a Special Investigation Team to probe allegations that ED officers were attacked while trying to conduct raids at Sheikh’s residence (on January 5). During the hearing, the bench also pulled up the state government for failing to arrest Sheikh for more than 50 days.
The bench made it clear that the state cannot “shirk its responsibility by not apprehending a person who has been on the run for so many days”. “Mr AG, we see so many cases, wherein in petty offences also, an FIR is lodged in the morning and by afternoon the accused are arrested and jailed. Your machinery is so efficient but it defies logic that this man isn’t arrested for so many days now,” said Chief Justice Sivagnanam.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court granted permission to an independent fact-finding team and Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari to visit Sandeshkhali.
The order came while hearing two separate petitions from both parties.
However, the court gave the nod with a few riders.In the first case, the single Bench of Justice Kausik Chanda while allowing the independent fact-finding team to visit the trouble-hit area restricted its movement to only those spots in Sandeshkhali where prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were not in forceHearing the other petition,
Justice Kausik Chanda allowed Adhikari and BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh to visit Sandeshkhali, but directed the former to give an undertaking to the local police station stating that he would ensure that there would not be any fresh tension over his visit.
The bench directed that Adhikari would not be allowed to make any provocative statements in Sandeshkhali. The BJP leader will visit the area on Thursday.Last Sunday, West Bengal police arrested six members of an ‘independent’ fact-finding committee in Bhojerhat while they were on their way to visit the riverine region, citing prohibitory orders.Led by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice L Narasimha Reddy, the committee wanted to probe allegations of human right violations in Sandeshkhali Later, they had moved the court requesting for its intervention.
— With PTI inputs