Sandeshkhali Prime Accused TMC Leader Sheikh Shahjahan Arrested by Bengal Police

The absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, who was accused of sexual violence and land grab in the Sadeshkhali village was arrested by the West Bengal police on Thursday morning. Sheikh Shahjahan was nabbed from Minakha in North 24 Parganas district.

A total of 43 FIRs were filed against the TMC leader, and this arrest was made against the the complaint that was lodged by the Enforcement Directorate over the attack on them in January. Currently, the TMC leader is held in the Basirhat court's lockup and is scheduled to appear before the court later today.

Sheikh Shahjahan had been on the run since January 5 after Enforcement Directorate officials enroute to conduct raids at his Sandeshkali residence in connection with the alleged ration distribution scam when they were attacked by his supporters.

The situation in West Bengal's Sandeshkali further escalated after the women of the village bearing sicks, sickles and axes took to the streets and levelled charges of land grab and sexual harassment under coercion against Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar.

It is important to note that Sheikh Shahjahan's arrest comes days after Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee had hit out at the judiciary for allegedly “guarding” Sheikh Shahjahan. "Trinamool is not guarding Sheikh Shahjahan but the judiciary is. This is to ensure that Sandeshkhali remains in the news. Lift the stay and see what the state police do,” said Banerjee.

Following Abhishek Banerjee's claims the Callcutta High Court had clarified that that there was no order preventing the Bengal Police from arresting Sheikh Shahjahan. "The advocates submitted that a wrong impression has been created that a stay order on the arrest of the person has been granted. There is nothing on record staying the arrest and therefore the said person shall be arrested by the police authorities,” noted the Calcutta High Court.

"All cases filed against Sheikh Shahjahan are based on incidents that have happened 2 or 3 years back, and it takes time to probe into such accusations. However, it would have been easier for us to to probe into the incident that happened recently, that is the January 5 attack on the Enforcement Directorate officials, however, we were restricted by the Calcutta High Court's stay order, and so we could not arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. It has been accused by many that the police wasn't arresting the absconding leader on purpose, however, I would like to say that such accusations are false, baseless and wrong, our hands were tied owing to the stay order. Once the HC clarified its order two days ago we got down to work and arrested Sheikh Shahjahan," said ADG South Bengal, Supratim Sarkar.

After Shahjahan was arrested on Thursday morning, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gohale stated that the absconding leader was arrested "within days" after the Calcutta High Court freed the hands of the police. “As our Natl Gen Sec @abhishekaitc had rightly pointed out — it was a Calcutta HC stay order that had restrained the police. We had also committed that Sheikh Shahjahan would be arrested WITHIN DAYS if the Hon’ble HC freed the hands of the police. On 26th Feb, the HC clarified that WB Police can arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. And today, in less than 72 hours, he has been arrested by West Bengal Police," posted Gokhale on "X". He also hit out at the BJP for "protecting" leaders such as Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh even after female wrestlers had leveled charges of sexual assault against him.

However, BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar has maintained that Sheikh was arrested due to the continued efforts of the leaders of the saffron party. "Due to the continuous agitation by the BJP, this government was compelled to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. The government was in a mode of denial. They were not even accepting that anything has happened. I had already said that we would compel the government to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. Today, due to the agitation of the BJP and the women of Sandeshkhali, the government and Mamata Banerjee were compelled to arrest him," said Majumdar.​