According to police sources, Sheikh Shahjahan of the Trinamool Congress, who was apprehended on 29th February, admitted to encouraging a crowd to attack an Enforcement Directorate team last month, the police said in the plea seeking his remand, reported Telegraph. After being at large for 55 days, Shahjahan was eventually arrested by the authorities in Minakhan, North 24 Parganas district and during interrogation, the 53-year-old acknowledged that he was involved in the 5th January attack on the officials of the national agency who were searching his property as part of a ration scam investigation at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas.
“Shahjahan was arrested late on Wednesday night from Bamanpukur area at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas. He was arrested in connection with the case related to the attack on ED officials on January 5. He was one of the principal accused in the case. Several other cases have been lodged against him after protests broke out in Sandeshkhali earlier this month. Those are being investigated,” Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General (ADG) South Bengal informed the media.
The police made several disclosures in the remand plea. As per it, Shahjahan is the mastermind of the attack on ED team, adding that he not only obstructed the ED officials on duty but also “assaulted (them) mercilessly using his influence, men, and muscle power as well robbed their official articles.”
It states that “the reputation of the accused is very bad and there is every possibility of his absconding violating the order of the learned court and hampering the evidences as well as the process of investigation.”
The police said that during the interrogation after he was arrested by sub-inspector Pratap Sarkar of Nazat police station, he “confessed” his “guilt” and “involvement in the instant case.” Justifying the demand for police remand, the police said that Shahjahan’s help would be required to identify the other “large number of miscreants” involved in the case. The plea said, “the accused Shahjahan Sheikh is the only means who can provide the details of those involved absconding accused persons.”
Shahjahan was produced in a municipal court in Basirhat at around 10:30 and was remanded to police custody for 10 days. The development transpired following a ruling by the Calcutta High Court that Sheikh Shahjahan “should be detained” and the action could be carried out by the state police, the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Enforcement Directorate. Additionally, the police had been given a 72-hour window by West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose to capture him.
Over a month has passed since many women accused Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates of sexual assault and land grabbing at Sandeshkhali in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
He has been charged with under sections 147 (guilty of rioting), 148 (guilty of rioting being armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 307 (attempt to murder), 333 (whoever voluntarily causes grievous hurt to any person being a public servant) and 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the police, in the last few weeks alone, over 100 complaints have been submitted against Sheikh Shahjahan. These complaints have led to the filing of several cases against him and his companions, including 376D (gang rape). Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, two of his close aides, had previously been taken into custody on similar allegations.
Meanwhile, the investigation of the cases filed against Sheikh Shajahan was taken over by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) department.