After weeks of Sheikh Shahjahan attacking ED officials and the Sandeshkhali women protesting against the TMC leader for raping them and grabbing their lad, the West Bengal Police finally arrested the TMC strongman on early hours of Thursday. Following the arrest, Shahjahan’s lawyers approached the Calcutta High Court with a bail plea. However, the court refused urgent listing of the plea, and came down heavily on the politician for absconding for almost two months before his arrest.
Sheikh Shahjahan’s lawyers contended that the matter was extremely urgent, and prayed that the plea for regular hearing should be listed as an urgent motion. After hearing the arguments, a division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya refused the plea for an urgent hearing, asking the counsel to come to the court on Monday.
The bench said that there are so many cases filed against Sheikh Shahjahan that the lawyer will be busy with his cases for the next 10 years, and he will not have time for any other case. The court noted that apart from as many as 42 cases filed against him, Sheikh was also absconding for a long time. The court categorically noted that it has no sympathy for the TMC leader.
The court remarked, “Let him be arrested. For the next 10 years, this person will keep you very busy. You won’t have any time for any other brief. 42 cases have been registered against him, he had been absconding as well. You come on Monday. Anything you want you come on Monday, we have got no sympathy for that person.”
Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested by West Bengal police from the Minakhan area in North 24 Parganas. He was picked up after midnight, and formally arrested in the morning. He was produced before Basirhat Court after the arrest, and the court granted police custody of 10 days for interrogation, even though the police sought 14 days. He will be produced before the court on 10th March.
Sheikh has been arrested under several sections of the IPC including 147 (rioting) and 148 (armed with weapon).
Notably, police claimed that Sheikh Shahjahan has been arrested after court lifted stay order on is arrest. ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar said, “There was a legal obligation to arrest Shahjahan Sheikh. However, the arrest came only after the court lifted the stay order.”
However, this version is clearly wrong as the High Court ruling had clarified multiple times that there is no stay order on his arrest. Taking the matter suo moto, the court had said that West Bengal police, CBI and ED are free to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. The court had said that earlier stay order was only constitution of a SIT to probe the matter comprising members of CBI and the state police, and there was no stay order on the arrest.
On 20th February, the Calcutta High Court slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led-West Bengal government for failing to arrest ‘absconding’ Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan, responsible for the violence and unrest in Sandeshkhali village. During the hearing, the court observed, “He (Sheikh Shahjahan) cannot be encouraged by State dispensation. There is a prima facie material to show he has done damage…”
“This person cannot be on the run. Obviously, there will be law and order problem. He is a public representative. He cannot be defying law. Let’s see whether he can appear before the Court,” the court had noted.
The Calcutta High Court then directed the accused Trinamool Congress leader to surrender before the law enforcement authorities. “In the suo motu matter, we will ask him to surrender here… One person cannot hold entire population to ransom,” the court said.
