Bengal: CBI arrests Sheikh Shahjahan’s brother, two others for attack on ED team
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday arrested Sheikh Alamgir, the younger brother of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan, and two others in connection with the January 5 attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials who raided Shahjahan’s home, officials of the federal agency said.
The state police handed over Sheikh Shahjahan to the CBI earlier this month following orders from the Calcutta high court which asked the central agency to probe the attack on ED officers.
The TMC strongman, along with his associates, is accused of land grab, extortion and sexual crimes against local women at Sandeshkhali in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
“Alamgir and two of his associates were summoned to the CBI office for questioning in connection with the January 5 violence. They were arrested on Saturday evening,” a CBI official said on condition of anonymity.
Sandeshkhali has been made a political issue by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls announced on Saturday afternoon.
On March 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a BJP election rally at Arambagh in Bengal’s Hooghly district. The torment of women at Sandeshkhali has shaken the nation and Bengal’s people should use their votes to take revenge against TMC, Modi said without naming Shahjahan or his associates.
Shahjahan was arrested by the state police on February 28, after he stayed in hiding for 55 days. This, too, made chief minister Mamata Banerjee a target of the BJP since she is in charge of the home department as well.
The ED raided Shahjahan’s home because he was a suspect in the multi-crore public distribution system (PDS) case. Former food minister Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested by ED on October 27 last year in this case. The ED has alleged that subsidised good grains meant for ration shops were syphoned to the open market to be sold at a premium.
Shahjahan was suspended from the TMC for six years after his arrest following a violent rebellion by Sandeshkhali residents.
Local women levelled most of the allegations at panchayat zilla parishad members Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar who are associates of Shahjahan.
The police arrested Sardar on February 10 shortly after TMC suspended him for six years. Hazra, who is also president of the TMC unit at Sandeshkhali-2 community block, was arrested on February 17.