The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered formation of a joint special investigation team (SIT) comprising Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and West Bengal Police to probe the attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials at Sandeshkhali on 5 January. The attack happened when the ED team, accompanied by central forces had gone to search local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan’s house in North 24-Parganas in connection with the probe into the money trail in a ration distribution scam in the state. Three ED officials were injured in the assault and needed hospitalisation.

The Bench of Justice Joy Sengupta directed that the probe will be monitored by the court and set a deadline for the SIT to file their report, 12 February, also the next date of hearing in the case. The Bench also in his ruling barred any officer from Nyajat police station to be part of the SIT and nixed submission of the final report without the approval of the court. The two officers would decide the other members of the SIT. Earlier, the single Bench of Justice Sengupta had rejected the ED argument to hand over the probe to the CBI on the grounds that both the ED and the police have so far failed to trace the elusive leader and arrest him after 12 days of the incident and how could the CBI be able to arrest him.

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The agency’s counsel had prayed to transfer the investigation to the CBI, claiming that the central agency does not have faith in a probe being done by the West Bengal Police. An SP rank officer from the CBI and Jaspreet Singh, SP of Islampur police district will jointly head the SIT, the court directed. The court also ordered the central agency to give the name of its officer by Thursday.

Regarding the formation of the joint SIT formed by the court, Trinamul Congress spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “From the very beginning, we had a clear stand that the central agency should take the state police into the loop before conducting any investigation or operation.

The BJP had been demanding to handover the case to the CBI. The court has effectively rejected their appeal and our stand has been vindicated. The state police and the administration have been doing their job with due diligence.