Sandeshkhali ED attack: Shahjahan confessed, will help nab other accused, say police
Telegraph | 1 March 2024
The police believe that Shahjahan Sheikh, the Trinamul Congress strongman of Sandeshkhali who was remanded to 10-day CID custody on Thursday after his overnight arrest, was the mastermind behind the January 5 attack on an Enforcement Directorate team, the shock of the brazen violence opening up a story of terror, largescale land grab and sexual violence against women of the Sundarbans island of around 22,000 inhabitants.
Hours after his arrest, Shahjahan was suspended from the Trinamul for six years.
Later on Thursday, Amir Ali Gazi, an aide of Shahjahan was arrested from Odisha.
The police applied for Shahjahan’s remand in an application that not only details the incident of January 5 that left three officials injured, but also places in court his use of muscle power to rob the officials. Here are the police’s key observations/findings in its remand application filed by Nazat police station sub-inspector Ganesh Sardar:
The arrest
The Trinamul North 24-Parganas zilla parishad functionary was absconding since the January 5 attack on ED officials. He was arrested late on Wednesday from a house in Minakha, about 30 km from Sandeshkhali, where his writ ran large on all matters of the administration and local business.
During this time, amid mounting allegations of his “reign of terror", residents of Sandeshkhali, especially women, have come out in the street and held violent protests demanding his immediate arrest for alleged land grab, extortion and atrocities on women.
The police have taken into account the prevailing situation in Sadeshkhali which has seen sporadic violence sparked by protests against Shahjahan’s henchmen, who were left without his protection, once he went into hiding.
Complaints, accusations
The attack on ED
According to the police, they came to “know that the inhabitants of the house of Shahjahan Sheikh asked the ED officials to show the search warrant which they denied and when the ED officials started to break the lock of the house, the local people assembled there and started to question the ED officials. It ended up in an argument and a scuffling inclined to a brick battle in between public and ED officials.”
The damage
“During the incident three vehicles used by the raid and media team and also their accessories and belongings of media were damaged.”