The West Bengal government has moved the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order calling for a CBI probe in the Sandeshkhali issue, in which ED officials were attacked by a mob while carrying out a raid at the premises belonging to TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the plea before the Supreme Court bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. The top court asked him to mention it before the registrar general of the apex court. Earlier the Calcutta High Court had transferred the Sandeshkhali case to the CBI.
In January ED officials came under attack in the North 24 Parganas district while they were on their way to raid the homes of former Bongaon Municipality chairman Shankar Adhya and Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with the ration ‘scam’ case. Since then the village has seen massive protests led by women accusing local TMC MLAs of land grabbing and sexual harassment.
Following these protests, a manhunt was launched to nab Sheikh Shahjahan leading to his arrest by West Bengal police last week. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Thursday took a dig at TMC government and West Bengal Police over Shahjahan’s arrest saying he has been put under the ‘mehman-nawazi’ (hospitality) of the state police in a bid to avoid arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and the CBI.
