Enforcement Directorate reacts on Sandeshkhali attack ahead of raiding TMC leader’s house, calls it an “intention to cause death”; 3 FIRs registered

In a strongly worded statement, the Enforcement Directorate reacted to the attack on the officials as the teams went to raid TMC leader Sahajahan Sheikh’s house at Sandeshkhali on Friday morning, calling it an “intention to cause death”

The central agency late on Friday evening posted their statement on ‘X’ amidst a political showdown that had erupted between the Trinamool Congress and BJP. “ED was conducting searches on the three premises of Sahajahan Sheikh, Convenor of TMC, North 24 Parganas in case of PDS scam of West Bengal. During the searches on one of the premises, the ED team with CRPF personnel was attacked by 800-1000 people with an intention to cause death as these people were carrying weapons such as Lathis, stones and bricks,” the statement read

Enforcement Directorate stated that three officials had sustained grievous injuries and were admitted to the hospital while claiming that their belongings were also snatched away by the mob. On Friday morning as the ED teams reached the residence of Shahjahan Sheikh, after multiple attempts there was no response from inside the house, none opened the gate. As Ed was about to break open the gate of the house, a mob appeared and charged upon the team and journalists and chased them away from the village. Vehicles were vandalised and media units were attacked too. “Violent mob also snatched/robbed/stole personal and official belongings of ED officials, such as their mobile phones, laptop, cash, wallets, etc. and damaged some of the ED vehicles,” the statement added. This was the first time when central agency officials came under such an attack during a raid in Bengal.

The state Governor CV Ananda Bose had issued a stern message warning of exploring his “constitutional options” to put an end to the culture of violence, terming it pre-poll violence. The incident has also sparked a face-off between TMC and BJP. “This is BJP’s conspiracy to malign the state. There were unruly elements attached to the central agencies who had provoked the locals”, claimed TMC leader Kunal Ghosh. BJP had termed the incident as another example of deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari has sought the intervention of the Home Ministry and has demanded a NIA probe into the matter.

Meanwhile, three FIRs have been registered by Bengal police. One complaint was lodged by ED and converted into an FIR. Similarly, another FIR was registered by TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh against ED alleging that ED had illegally tried breaking into the house without giving any reasoning. The third FIR had been registered by media personnel against unknown miscreants for the attack on journalists.​