Sandeshkhali Violence : West Bengal Govt Moves Supreme Court Against Calcutta HC Asking CBI To Probe Attack On ED Officials

West Bengal's plea requesting the apex court's urgent intervention was orally mentioned before Justice Sanjiv Khanna's bench today by Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jaideep Gupta and Gopal Sankaranarayanan.  

In response to this, the judge directed the papers to be placed before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud for further instructions. The matter was mentioned before Justice Khanna, the second senior judge of the Supreme Court, as the CJI was holding a Constitution Bench hearing at the time.

The Calcutta High Court, in its order, set aside an earlier decision to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with members of the state police and instead directed the state to transfer all relevant documents and the custody of prime accused Shahjahan Sheikh to the CBI. This came in response to concerns over the state police's handling of the matter. While passing this order, Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya emphasised the need for a fair and unbiased investigation, particularly due to the accused's alleged political influence and connections within the ruling party.

Shahjahan Sheikh, described by the court as a 'strongman' with significant political influence, was elected as a Karmadhaksya of Zilla Parishad, North 24 Parganas, and had ties to the ruling party. The high court expressed concern over the State Police's "hide and seek" tactics and the need for an impartial inquiry into the public distribution system scam, in which Sheikh is a key figure.

The accused who has been apprehended on 29th February, 2024 after being on the run for more than 50 days is not an ordinary citizen. He is an elected representative of the public, holding the highest office in a Zilla Parishad, he was fielded as the candidate at the elections held for the said post by the political party which is ruling dispensation. Thus, it has become imperative and absolutely necessary for doing complete justice and enforcing the fundamental rights of the public in general and the public of the locality that the cases be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation for investigation and to proceed further, it concluded.

Background

The application before the Calcutta High Court was moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which believed that the state police's custody of Sheikh would frustrate the purpose of the investigation, which involved him masterminding an assault on members of a central agency.

After the assault on the ED officers, the situation in Sandeshkhali further precipitated into a state of unrest, with widespread reports of sexual assault and land grabbing being attributed to Shahjahan and his followers, belonging to the ruling dispensation in West Bengal.

The division bench is also seized of a suo moto matter regarding the alleged illegalities perpetrated against the people of Sandeshkhali by Shahjahan and his men.

Earlier, the court had clarified that there was no stay order on the arrest of Shahjahan Sheikh, who was the prime accused in almost 42 criminal cases arising out of Sandeshkhali, eventually leading to his arrest by the State Police after a prolonged period of being absconding.

ASG SV Raju had argued before the court that the custody of Shahjahan ought to be handed over to the CBI, since after 15 days of him remaining in state police custody, no other agency would be able to seek his custody, thereby frustrating the purpose of the investigation.

It was argued that the state police was colluding with Sheikh, since they had registered FIRs against ED officials on the very same day when the officials were assaulted in Sandeshkhali, thereby not inspiring any confidence in their abilities.

Advocate General for the State had argued that the investigation had been handed over to the State CID, who was examining the allegations, and had added "all possible sections" against Shahjahan Sheikh, including charges under Section 307 IPC.

Pertinently, the division bench had earlier, on the request of the CBI, stayed an order constituting an SIT with members of the State police as well as CBI to investigate the assault on ED officials, since the CBI had apprehended that state police involvement would lead to leakage of information.