On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal government to promptly transfer Shahjahan Sheikh, the main accused in the Sandeshkhali case, to the CBI by 4 pm today.
The court also issued contempt notices to the state government and requested an affidavit within two weeks explaining why they should not be held in contempt.
Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the court that the West Bengal Police was not cooperating with the federal agency in the Shahjahan Sheikh case.
The ED accused the Bengal Police of non-cooperation and petitioned the court to hold them in contempt.
Justices Harish Tandon and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, a division bench, permitted the ED to file a contempt petition against the West Bengal government.
This decision came after the high court, on Tuesday, ordered the investigation into a mob attack on ED officials in Sandeshkhali to be transferred to the CBI. The attack occurred on January 5 during a raid on Sheikh’s premises in connection with a ration scam probe.
The West Bengal government took its case to the Supreme Court, arguing that the High Court’s decision to transfer the Sandeshkhali case investigation to the CBI was done “in a cursory manner” and violated the apex court’s established law.
However, the Supreme Court did not grant any relief to the state government. The government also expressed that the High Court’s order unfairly criticized the state’s investigating agency by mandating the transfer of the probe to the CBI.
Following the High Court’s directive, CBI investigators waited at the CID headquarters in Bhavani Bhawan for over two hours for Shahjahan Sheikh’s custody.
However, they returned empty-handed when the state agency informed them that the West Bengal government had approached the Supreme Court on the matter on Tuesday evening. Additionally, on March 5, the CBI registered three FIRs against Shahjahan Sheikh.
