Source: IANS

In a fresh tension erupted in the Sandeshkhali, angry villagers burnt down a property owned by Sheikh Sirajuddin, the younger brother of the absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan.

The angry villagers also reportedly recaptured a local playground at Sandeshkhali which was allegedly occupied forcefully by the absconding leader and his associates.

The property of Sheikh Sirajuddin that was reportedly set ablaze by the agitated villagers was a warehouse in the midst of a pisciculture (controlled breeding and rearing of fish) farm owned by him.

The villagers alleged that the farm where the warehouse was situated was set up on land belonging to them and that it had been illegally occupied by the Trinamool leader and his kin.

They alleged that Sirajuddin occupied the farmland after ruining its fertility by flooding it with saline water.

23 complaints to NCST

The field inspection team from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), which visited the trouble-ridden area in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Feb 22, received as many as 23 complaints from the local people there.

A member of the field inspection team, which was led by NCST vice chairman Ananta Nayek, told mediapersons that the commission will submit a report on its findings to president Draupadi Murmu.

Without naming anyone, the team member said that the majority of the complaints were against a local political leader, about whom the commission will update the president.

However, the members of the team were tight-lipped about the details of the findings during their day-long inspection.

The NCST team reached Sandeshkhali on the morning of Feb 22 where they interacted with the local people, especially the women who have been protesting for over last two weeks alleging sexual harassment in the hands of a local Trinamool Congress leader and his aides.

On Feb 21, the NCST had sent notices to chief secretary BP Gopalika and acting DGP Rajeev Kumar, seeking an action taken report on the unrest in Sandeshkhali within 72 hours, or else appear personally before the commission in the national capital.

Besides NCST, four other national commissions -- National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), National Commission for Women (NCW), and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) -- have intervened in the Sandeshkhali matter.

The chairpersons of NCW and NCSC have recommended President’s rule, considering the gravity of the complaints of the women from Sandeshkhali.

ED files money laundering case 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raid and search operations at different places owned by Sheikh Shahjahan and his confidante businessmen after lodging a new money laundering case.

Sources said the fresh case was registered after the sleuths secured crucial clues about the investments of the alleged ration distribution case proceeds in the business of pisciculture farms and export of processed fish abroad, an area of trade where Shahjahan and his associates enjoyed a virtual monopoly in Sandeshkhali.

Sources said the raid began around 9.30 a.m. Six ED teams were conducting parallel raids and search operations at six places scattered over the state capital of Kolkata, Howrah, and North 24 Parganas district.

All the places, where the raid and search operations were being conducted, belonged to the businessmen involved in the export of processed fish and having close business links with Sheikh Shahjahan.

As per the latest information available, the six places where the raid and search operations were being conducted include one owned by Partha Pratim Sengupta in the Hadalpara area in Howrah district and the other is owned by Arup Shom in the Bijoygarh area in South Kolkata.

Both Sengupta and Shom, according to sources, are in the export business of processed prawn and shrimp. And have reportedly close links with Sheikh Shahjahan, the absconding Trinamool Congress leader and the accused mastermind behind the January 5 attack on ED and CAPF sleuths.

Meanwhile, the ED issued a fresh notice to Shahjahan today asking him to be present at ED’s Salt Lake office in the northern outskirts of Kolkata by this week.

He has ducked the previous three notices and instead approached different courts in West Bengal through his counsel with pleas for anticipatory bail.

The hearing on one such appeal at a district court in West Bengal is scheduled today.

The ED had originally started its investigation in the alleged ration distribution scam by registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the last quarter of 2023, as a follow up of which the West Bengal Minister, Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested and raid and search operations at Shahjahan’s residence at Sandeshkhali was conducted on Jan 5.

After the attack on their sleuths, the ED filed a case in the Calcutta High Court demanding an independent CBI probe in the case of the attack. Now, ED has decided to tighten its noose around Shahjahan and his associates by registering a fresh case linking the alleged ration scam proceeds with the business run by them.

(Compiled from IANS)

-Edited for style

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