The West Bengal Police handed over the custody of Sandheshkhali violence case accused Shahjahan Sheikh to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, after the Calcutta High Court issued a fresh directive in this regard.
The high court had ordered the transfer of the case to the CBI on Tuesday, but the police refused to hand over Shahjahan’s custody to the central agency, citing that the state government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC order.
On Wednesday, the high court issued a fresh directive, asking the state government to "immediately implement" its judgement. The court noted that though the state pleaded that it has filed before the Supreme Court an SLP challenging Tuesday's judgement, there is no interim stay granted on the implementation of the orders till the time it was passing its order.
Shahjahan was arrested by the West Bengal police on February 29 after being on the run for more than a month since a mob allegedly affiliated to him attacked a team of Enforcement Directorate officials in Sandeshkhali on January 15. The ED team had reached the village to search the TMC leader’s premises in connection with a ration scam.
The state government was under pressure to arrest Shahjahan after scores of women in the village took to the streets, accusing the TMC leader of sexual assault and land grabs.
The high court transferred the probe to the CBI, noting that the state police investigation was “totally biased”.
"The act of the state police would be sufficient to hold that the state police are totally biased and every attempt is being made to delay the investigation in order to protect the accused, who has been absconding for more than 50 days," said a division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam.
