Sheikh Shahjahan’s close aide, Aamir Ali Gazi, has been arrested by West Bengal Police from Jharkhand, police said on Thursday.
Trinamool Congress on Thursday suspended Sheikh Shahjahan from the party for six years.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien held a press conference here today and said that by the time West Bengal Police was given freedom, it took two days to arrest the culprit.
It is notable here that the TMC leaders, including O’Brien and Abhishek Banerjee, have been claiming that the Bengal Police has been unable to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan because there is a ‘stay’ on his arrest from the Calcutta HC. This was a bold lie, and the Calcutta High Court itself had clarified it, asking the state police to arrest the absconding TMC leader soon.
On Monday, 26th February, the Calcutta HC had come down heavily on the police and Bengal government. “It is surprising to note that incidents in the area were reported to state police four years ago and that it has taken four years for the cases to mature into 42 chargesheets”, the High Court said.
The court further asserted, “A wrong impression has been created as if an interim order of stay of arrest has been given. There is nothing on record to say that such a stay is in place. Therefore he should be arrested.”
The Division Bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, taking a su moto case, directed the High Court registry to issue a public notice in newspapers informing that Shahjahan Sheikh is wanted by the police as he is on the run and has not been seen in public since January 5.
During the press conference, Derek O’Brien missed mentioning that the TMC government moved to arrest Shahjahan only after repeated reprimands from the High Court and widespread media coverage highlighting the Mamata government’s incompetence in the case.
Derek further added that BJP people are not drinking water in their headquarters in Delhi because “they want to keep this issue alive till Mr Modi arrives here but that could not be possible”.”If you had said that we have legal obstructions to arrest the culprit then why didn’t ED arrest him? People in Northern India don’t know so we have to clarify who has arrested the culprit. The Central agencies or the West Bengal police. The police don’t have the power to arrest in ED PMLA case, only the ED can do so. The culprit has been arrested in cases registered to West Bengal Police,” TMC MP said.
“The court gave freedom to the police, it took two days. Our challenge to Mr Modi is that I want to give two numbers 2219 and 2250. 2219 refers to the number of days Nirav Modi has been absconding and Mehul Choksi has been absconding for 2250 days. You have not brought these people to book in these days,” he added.
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s Basirhat Court remanded Trinamool Congress (TMC) Sheikh Shahjahan to 10-day police custody on Thursday.
Lawyer Raja Bhowmick, who represented Shahjahan in court, said, “14-day police custody (of Sheikh Shahjahan) was demanded, but the court allowed 10-day custody.””On March 10, he will be produced in court again,” he said.
Shahjahan was arrested by West Bengal police on Thursday morning in connection with the assault on ED officers during a raid in January earlier this year.West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose called Shahjahan’s arrest an ‘eye-opener’, adding that it is only the ‘beginning’.”Today in Bengal, we see the beginning of an end.
The arrest of the prime accused in the Sandeshkhali incidents is an eye-opener for everyone. This is only the beginning. We have to put an end to violence in Bengal,” Ananda Bose said.
Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district had been witnessing widespread protests against TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh this month as a section of women were seeking justice against alleged atrocities committed by the TMC leader.A large number of women in Sandeshkhali had accused Shajahan Sheikh and his close aides of “land-grab and sexual assault” under coercion.
Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, who filed a PIL in the Supreme Court and sought an independent probe in the Sandeshkhali incident, said on Thursday that it was surprising that after court allowed the CBI and ED to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan, within a few hours he was arrested by the West Bengal police.
“We all know that Sheikh Shahjahan has been arrested today but his body language showed that it is a clear case of him being sheltered and that is why we are now going to request Calcutta High Court to order an independent investigation into the case. The victims of Sandeshkhali will only get justice if the entire case is investigated by independent agencies. Yesterday, CBI made the serious request before the Calcutta High Court and said that they have of serious apprehension that if West Bengal police arrest Sheikh Shahjhana then the entire case will be diluted and there can be a collision between the state police and the accused. After which, the court allowed CBI and ED to arrest him,” he said.
“It is very surprising that after a few hours of this, the accused was arrested by the police. In the last 55 days, he was not arrested,” he added.
Further, he said that the Supreme Court has advised him to go to Calcutta High Court with his PIL.
On the arrest of Sheikh Shahjahan, BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal said, “This is all scripted, orchestrated, and it was done on terms and conditions placed by Shahjahan because, you see, this is not an arrest. This is the way that they have asked him to surrender, basically. The way he was walking just look at his body language, you can very well understand. In the last 55 days, the police were unable to catch this guy and then in two days, as I had said earlier when I filed my petition that in 48 hours he would be arrested. And that is exactly what has happened.”
After the arrest of absconding TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, who was on the run for 55 days, West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the TMC has never taken any step to shield any offender.West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “We have always said that we never take any step to shield any offender. He has been arrested because he is an accused. Sheikh Shahjahan has also been suspended from the party for 6 years.”
Taking a dig at the TMC government and West Bengal Police over the arrest of absconding strongman and Sandeshkhali accused Sheikh Shahjahan, and, his 10-day remand, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Thursday said 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.
(With inputs from ANI)
