Shahjahan Sheikh, TMC Leader Held in Sandeshkhali Violence, Sent to 10-Day Police Custody

TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh, accused of sexual atrocities and land grab in Sandeshkhali, was sent to 10 days in police custody by a court in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Thursday. Sheikh, who had been absconding for 55 days, was produced before the court in Basirhat around 10.40 am after his arrest from Minakhan in the early hours.

The state police sought 14 days of custody, but the court granted 10 days. Additional director general of police (south Bengal) Supratim Sarkar later held a press conference on TMC leader’s arrest.

Sheikh had been on the run since January 5 when ED officials who had gone to raid his house, in connection with the ration scam, were attacked and chased away.

The Calcutta high court had on Monday made it clear that there is no stay on his arrest. “There is no stay on his arrest. A stay on investigation doesn’t mean stay on arrest. There is an FIR registered, he is branded as an accused. He will have to be arrested,” the HC said.

This came after TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee stated that his government was not shielding Shahjahan, but complying with a high court order.

Two days later, on Wednesday, the high court directed that Sheikh can be arrested by the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the West Bengal Police.

Reacting to the arrest, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh praised that Bengal police for cracking down on the Sandeshkhali accused. He added that CBI should now arrest Suvendu Adhikari and Mithun Chakraborty (both BJP leaders), who have been named in FIRs in separate cases. Ghosh also demanded arrest of Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh.

“Due to a legal tangle, he couldn’t be arrested initially. However, after the court clarified that there was no stay on his arrest, the West Bengal Police did its job. The opposition had earlier exploited the embargo on his arrest,” Ghosh told.

The opposition BJP, which had claimed that Sheikh was in “safe custody” of state police since Tuesday night, dubbed the arrest as scripted. “It was TMC and the state police which were shielding the culprits. He has been arrested now as a part of a well-scripted story,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

The arrest comes ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day Bengal visit from tomorrow. He is set to address two public gatherings in Hooghly and Nadia districts as well as inaugurate numerous projects.

Who is Shahjahan Sheikh?

Known to residents as ‘Betaj Badshah’, Sheikh Shahjahan is an influential person associated with Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, a border area in the North 24 Parganas district.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the TMC leader, 42, had his first brush with the law in 2006 when he was summoned to a police station for the first time. Sheikh was then in his 20s and worked as an

agent at a fish market in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali.

Locals in Sandeshkhali Celebrate Arrest of Shajahan Sheikh

Locals in trouble-torn Sandeshkhali celebrated the arrest of Shajahan Sheikh, and distributed sweets. The locals, who for the last few days have been protesting in the riverine Sandeshkhali area, came out in the streets as they distributed sweets and danced in joy.

“We are very happy that he has been arrested at last. We just hope he should be put behind bars and never return to this area. He has destroyed lives of many people area”, a local said. Echoing similar sentiments, a woman said, “We hope that his other associates are also put behind bars”.

(With inputs from PTI)