KOLKATA: A day after the unprecedented attack on officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) leaving the central agency’s sleuths bleeding when a raid was being conducted at the house of Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh in North 24 Parganas in a ration distribution scam case, the state police on Saturday registered an FIR against the federal agency for attempting to break in without a warrant.
The FIR was lodged on the basis of the complaint lodged by the caretaker of Shahjahan’s house.
The ED, too, lodged a complaint by e-mailing the director general of police and superintendent of Basirhat police district with serious charges including attempt to murder against the attackers. However, no one was arrested in connection with the attack on the ED officers.
In a similar incident, the ED officers faced ire of the ruling party’s supporters when they were arresting former chairman of Bongaon civic body Shankar Adhya in connection with the same foodgrain scam, in which former food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested, late on Friday night. Adhya’s followers surrounded the sleuths of the investigating agency and smashed the rear wind-shield of one of its vehicles. However, none of the ED officers was injured in the incident.
“A group of Adhya’s followers attacked us when we were taking him out of his Bongaon residence. The central police force personnel had to wield batons to disperse irate supporters who also pelted stones and damaged one of our vehicles,” said an ED officer.
The investigating agency carried out searches at Adhya’s in-laws’ house in the same area and recovered Rs 8 lakh in cash and incriminating evidence. “Adhya was a close aide of Mallick and we have come across clinching evidence showing his direct involvement in the irregularities using the public distribution system,” said the officer.
The ED, after producing Adhya in a Kolkata court, mentioned in its submission that the foreign money exchange business of the former civic body chief was used to siphon off the proceeds of the scam. The investigating agency also claimed in the court that Rs 2,000 crore, proceeds of the alleged crime, was siphoned off to an overseas country.
The central agency’s swoop at Basirhat and Bongaon was part of a larger operation that included raids at 11 other locations across the state in connection with the foodgrain scam case.
Sources in the ED said the agency is discussing the attacks on its officers with legal experts to decide its next course of action.
According to the sources, Union Home minister Amit Shah has sought a report from West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose on the incident of attack on the ED officers. Though Bose summoned the chief secretary and the director general of police at Raj Bhavan on Friday but none of them turned up even a day after the incident.
The Bengal governor went to the private hospital in Salt Lake and visited three injured officers who were admitted to the healthcare facility.
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