In accordance with court orders from Tuesday, the West Bengal police were instructed by the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday to turn over Sheikh Shahjahan’s custody to the CBI. Shahjahan must be turned over to the CBI by the police by 4:30 PM today.
The West Bengal CID received a notice from Justice Harish Tandon of the Calcutta High Court for failing to transfer custody as directed by the court. The state CID has been asked by the court to respond to the non-compliance within the next two weeks.
The West Bengal government’s appeal against the Calcutta High Court ruling before the Supreme Court was brought up earlier today by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi for the second time. But Justice Sanjiv Khanna’s bench instructed him to bring up the matter before CJI DY Chandrachud.
Shahjahan Sheikh, the leader of the Trinamool Congress who was arrested for allegedly attacking ED agents, was the subject of a probe that the Calcutta High Court transferred to the CBI on Tuesday.
Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya of the high court bench overruled a previous ruling by the court requesting the formation of a SIT consisting of state police officials.
Shahjahan Sheikh was the mastermind behind the attack on the ED officers in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal, according to the CBI’s submission to the high court. The central agency argued that Shahjahan must be given over to the CBI since no other agency would be permitted to request his custody once he was held by the state police for 15 days.
A number of women in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali have accused Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates of forcing them into sexual assault and engaging in violent land grabs.
On January 5, a crowd purportedly connected to Shajahan attacked Enforcement Directorate investigators who had gone to inspect his property in relation to a ration scam. Shajahan then fled.
The West Bengal Police detained him last week in relation to the unrest in Sandeshkhali.
