KOLKATA: ED director Rahul Navin on Tuesday held a meeting with officials at the agency’s office in Salt Lake and inquired about whether the West Bengal police updated them of the probe into the attack on January 5. ED officials probing the multi-crore foodgrain scam came under attack when they had raided Ttinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh’s house in Sandeshkhali, North 24 -Parganas. Navin also met Governor CV Ananda Bose at Raj Bhavan.
The ED, in a statement, alleged that the Bengal police had diluted the charges against Shahjahan when its complaint entailed more stringent sections. “Though our complaint attracts stringent sections, including attempt to murder, but the state police registered the FIR under lighter sections like rioting and wrongful restraint, most of which are bailable ones. The Bengal police have not even shared the copy of the FIR with us,” said an ED official.
Navin, who flew to Kolkata from Delhi on Tuesday, held a three-hour meeting with the central agency’s officers at its CGO Complex office. “The head of the agency took down blow-by-blow accounts of the attack that we faced when tried to search Shahjahan’s house in the foodgrain scam case. He also asked whether the BSF guarding the India-Bangladesh border was put on high alert about the possibility of Shahjahan’s attempt to sneak into the neighbouring country,” the official said.
Though DGP Rajeev Kumar said whoever responsible for violating the law would not be spared, the state police are in dark about the whereabouts of Shahjahan even four days after the attack on ED officials.
“Shahjahan’s cellphone is switched off since the incident and no one spotted him in the areas where he runs his businesses and network of his political party,” said a police officer.
Shahjahan’s brother Sheikh Alamgir said he had no idea about the whereabouts of his brother. “I tried to contact my brother several times but his phone is switched off. He did not return home since the incident on Friday,” he said.
Haji Siddiqui Mollah, chief of TMC-dominated panchayat in Sandeshkhali, said he doesn’t believe that Shahjahan fled from the area. “He is very much in the area and overseeing party’s affairs because the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held this year. Shahjahan is not a person who will get scared and flee. But I have no idea where he is. Had I been aware of it, I would have been with him,” he said.
Shahjahan on the run
Shahjahan’s cellphone is switched off since the incident and no one spotted him in the areas where he runs his businesses and network of his political party,” said a police officer. Shahjahan’s brother Sheikh Alamgir said he had no idea about his brother’