Sandeshkhali Row: Calcutta High Court Hands Over Custody Of Sheikh Shahjahan To CBI

Sandeshkhali Row: Calcutta High has handed over the custody of Sheikh Shahjahan to CBI.

Sandeshkhali: In a significant development, the Calcutta High Court has handed over the custody of landgrabing and sexual misconduct accused Sheikh Shahjahan to the central probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. Also, the top state court has ordered an independent probe by the CBI into the attack on ED and CAPF teams at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on January 5, as reported by news agency IANS.

A division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya also directed the state police to hand over the accused mastermind behind the attack, Sheikh Shahjahan, from the custody of the CID to the investigating officers of the CBI on Tuesday itself. The bench also directed the state police to hand over all the case-related documents to the CBI.

The court was hearing a plea moved by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking an independent CBI probe into the matter after reserving its judgement on Monday.

Probe Into Attack on ED and CAPF Teams In Sandeshkhal

Initially, the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta had ordered a probe into the attack on ED and CAPF teams in Sandeshkhali on January 5, which was allegedly orchestrated by Shahjahan, by a joint SIT of the West Bengal Police and the CBI.

However, the ED challenged the order and demanded that the probe be independently handled by the CBI. At that point in time, the division bench had put an interim stay on the formation and probe by a joint SIT. In the meantime, Shahjahan was arrested by the police on the night of February 28 after being on the run for 55 days, and the CID of the state police handed over the probe.

BJP Welcomes Move To Handover Sheikh Shahjahan To CBI

Welcoming the high court order, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya said on Tuesday that this is a positive development considering the widespread fear that evidence might have been tampered with had Shahjahan remained in state police custody for long.

“This is a welcome verdict given the current role of the state police, which is restricted to just blindly following the directions of the ruling party and guarding the accused persons,” Bhattacharya said.

(With inputs from agencies)