KOLKATA: A day after TMC’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee held the judiciary responsible for action not being taken against Shahjahan Sheikh, the Calcutta High Court on Monday clarified that it had not passed any order to stay or prevent the arrest of the party’s Sandeshkhali strongman who is facing allegations of land grabbing and sexual assault of women in the strife-hit island in North 24 Parganas.
“We will clarify that there is no stay on arrest. A stay on investigation doesn’t mean to stay arrest. There is an FIR registered, he is branded as an accused. He will have to be arrested,” the court said.
A division bench presided by Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya clarified that the court had only a single judge’s order to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the incident of attack on the officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) when the federal agency tried to raid Shahjahan’s house in a foodgrain scam case.
The bench also directed that the accused should be impleaded as a party in the writ petition filed before the court. “But since he is not traceable now, we will direct the registry to issue a public notice in Bengali and English newspapers, having wide publicity in the district,” the court added.
The bench was hearing a suo motu case initiated in view of media reports that several women in Sandeshkhali were subjected to sexual abuse by TMC satraps and the lands of tribals were being forcibly taken away in Sandeshkhali.
“Learned advocates submitted that a wrong impression is being created as if the stay of the arrest of said has been granted. There is nothing on record in any cases which are pending concerning incidents of Sandeshkhali that there is a stay of the arrest. Therefore, the said person shall be arrested by the concerned police authorities,” the bench said.
“It is surprising to note that the incidents in that area had been reported to the State Police four years ago and furthermore surprising that it has taken four years for 42 cases to mature into chargesheets. It is not clear as to under what provisions the said chargesheets have been laid. This will be examined at a later stage by this court,“ the court said in the order.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh welcomed the high court’s order saying, “It is good that the court clarified the stay-order issue. Shahjahan will be arrested within seven days.”
Asked why Shahjahan was untouched, Abhishek, also chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, on Sunday said, “The Calcutta High Court tied up the hands of the police by issuing a stay order on the probe against Shahjahan on the basis of Enforcement Directorate’s petition. The state government took action against former ministers Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mullick by removing them from the cabinet after they were arrested by central agencies on corruption charges, then who is Shahjahan?”
