Kolkata: Dealing yet another blow to the Trinamul Congress government in West Bengal over the Sandeshkhali violence, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the CBI to probe the mob attack on an Enforcement Director team during its raid at the house of TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh in the ration scam on January 5.
A bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya also directed the state police to hand over Shahjahan to the CBI by 4.30 pm. The Mamata Banerjee government moved the Supreme Court against the HC order and sought an urgent hearing but failed to get one.
Meanwhile, a CBI team visited the CID headquarters at Bhawani Bhavan in south Kolkata to take Shahjahan, prime accused of orchestrating the mob attack, into custody and get the case documents. The CBI team, however, returned empty-handed.
Shahjahan, who was expelled from the TMC after has arrest, has been lodged at the Bhawani Bhawan under a 10-day police custody after the CID took over the case against him following his arrest by the cops from Minakhan in North 24 Parganas on February 29.
Earlier in the day, the High Court set aside the previous order constituting a police special investigation team and instructed the police to hand over Shahjahan and the documents of three cases, filed at the Nyajat police station about the attack, to the CBI.
The bench observed, “It was made explicitly clear that the West Bengal State Police are restrained from proceeding with the investigation in the cases which have been registered by them. Despite such an order, the one case stood transferred to the CID, West Bengal who has issued notices dated 01.03.2024 under Section 91 and Section 160 CrPC.”
It added, “Thus, this act of the State Police would be sufficient to hold that the State Police are totally biased and every attempt is being made to delay the investigation in order to protect the accused who has been absconding for more than 50 days.”
Later state government’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi orally appealed to Justice Sanjiv Khanna of the SC for an urgent intervention against the HC order. The judge directed the papers to be placed before Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud for further instructions.
