In a statement, the ED said that the assets include 14 immovable properties such as an apartment, agriculture land, land for fishery, land and building among others.
Former TMC member Sheikh is the prime accused in the Sandeshkhali sexual assault and land grab allegations. Hundreds of Sheikh’s supporters also allegedly attacked an ED team that went to Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on January 5 to raid his house in an alleged ration scam case. While three ED officials were injured in the attack, Shahjahan escaped and was on the run for 55 days before his arrest on February 29. The TMC had suspended the strongman from the party after the arrest.
Earlier in the day, the Calcutta High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the attack on ED officials in Sandeshkhali, and ordered the police to hand over Sheikh’s custody to the central agency by 4.30 pm. Earlier, the high court had constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the Sandeshkhali incident. On Tuesday, the division bench quashed the SIT and ordered the CBI to investigate the matter.
The January 5 incident had led to violent protests by residents who accused Sheikh and his aides of sexual assault and land-grabbing.
Shortly after the Calcutta HC order, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government moved the Supreme Court, challenging the transfer of probe into the Sandeshkhali violence to the CBI.
The matter was mentioned before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the West Bengal government, seeking an urgent hearing. The bench refused an urgent listing of the plea and asked Singhvi to mention the matter before the Registrar General of the top court.
Both the ED and the West Bengal government moved separate appeals in the high court challenging a single bench order which on January 17 ordered the formation of a joint special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI and the state police to probe the mob attack on the ED officials.
Meanwhile, activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’s student wing, forcibly entered the collector’s office in Indore on Tuesday while staging a protest against violence in Sandeshkhali.
According to eyewitnesses, police personnel deployed at the spot closed the main gate to prevent the protesters from entering the premises, but they forcefully gained entry, and a scuffle occurred, news agency PTI reported.
Protesters sat on the floor of the complex and raised slogans against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and demanded the death penalty for rapists of women in Sandeshkhali, they said.
Officials pacified the ABVP activists and urged them to end their protest.
“We will examine the videos of the protest and take appropriate action,” additional district magistrate Sapna Lowanshi said.