On a day the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe into the Sandeshkhali violence to the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday provisionally attached assets worth Rs 12.78 crore of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh.
The assets were attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the ongoing investigations against Shahjahan and others.
The attached properties include 14 immovable properties in the nature of apartment, agriculture land, land for fisheries, land and buildings, etc. in Gram Serberia, Sandeshkhali, and Kolkata, the agency said, adding that two bank accounts have also been attached.
The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the West Bengal Police under various sections of IPC Act, 1860 Arms Act, 1959, SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, and the West Bengal State Highways Act against Shahajahan Seikh and others, which include heinous offences in the nature of giving threats of injury, murder, attempt to murder, extortion, and grabbing land of the general public.
On January 15, a team of Enforcement Directorate officials, which had arrived in Sandeshkhali to search the premises of Sheikh in a ration scam case, was attacked and chased away by a mob allegedly affiliated to the TMC leader.
Sheikh had been on the run for more than a month following the incident, even as several women in the village took to the streets, alleging that the TMC leader and his followers had illegally stolen their land and had been sexually abusing them. He was arrested by the West Bengal Police on February 29.
The ED says its investigations have revealed that the proceeds of crime acquired by Shahjahan by the commission of criminal activities relating to scheduled offences as mentioned in the above FIRs are being held, possessed, disguised, and concealed by Shahjahan in the form of various movable and immovable properties.
