After 55 days, Sheikh Shahjahan held, suspended from TMC
Times of India | 1 March 2024
SANDESHKHALI: Bengal Police arrested fugitive Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan (in pic) from a hideout barely 30km from flashpoint Sandeshkhali on Thursday, 55 days after he left in his wake a maelstrom of public and political unrest, and within 24 hours of Calcutta high court specifying that any agency - police, ED or CBI - was free to arrest him.
Mamata Banerjee-led TMC promptly suspended Shahjahan for six years and dared BJP to "walk the talk" and do the same to its "tainted" members.
We've no sympathy for Shahjahan, says HC CJ
Fugitive TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh was traced to Minakhan in Bamanpukur of North 24-Parganas district and arrested on Thursday.
When his counsel moved division bench challenging the councillor's arrest despite four anticipatory bail petitions pending in lower courts, Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam told the lawyer he should focus on the "wonderful job" of defending his client "for the next 10 years".
"As many as 42 cases are pending against him (Shahjahan)... You won't have time to handle any other brief," said CJ Sivagnanam, who recently held Shahjahan singularly responsible for the upheaval in Sandeshkhali and said Mamata Banerjee govt "can't be backing him".
The trigger for the flare-up in Sandeshkhali, including a stand-off between the administration and a section of residents allegedly harassed by Shahjahan for years, was a mob attack on an ED team headed to his Sarberia home on Jan 5 for a raid linked to corruption charges against him.
Shahjahan, in his trademark white kurta-pyjama, strode into courtroom a few steps ahead of his guards & wagged a finger at media, refusing to answer questions.
ED moved division bench of CJ Sivagnanam & Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, seeking an urgent hearing on its appeal against an order to have a police-CBI special investigation team probe the Jan 5 FIRs.
Deputy solicitor general Dhiraj Trivedi told court that while the plea had been listed for hearing on March 6, ED feared that evidence against Shahjahan could be destroyed by then.
HC did not immediately respond to the plea, just as it refused to entertain petition by Shahjahan's lawyer for an early hearing of his bail plea. "We have no sympathy for this person," CJ said.