The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is seeking to interrogate Sheikh Shahjahan, alleged mastermind for unleashing attacks on ED officials, in connection with various financial irregularities.
According to sources from the central investigative agency, ED officials are going to appeal to the SDJM court of Basirhat sub-division, on Saturday regarding this matter. ED is also going to appeal Shahjahan’s custody before a special ED court in Kolkata next week. Sheikh Shahjahan was previously arrested by the state police following the Sandeshkhali incident. Later, the court instructed state police to hand him over to CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a district court on Thursday that the now-suspended Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, who’s the mastermind behind the attack on ED and CAPF teams at Sandeshkhali on 5 January, had arranged local anti-social elements over phone to carry out the attack. Shahjahan was produced before the Basirhat sub-divisional court on Thursday on the expiry of his CBI custody. During the hearing, the CBI counsel named two persons, Ziauddin Molla and Didarbux Molla, with whom Shahjahan interacted before the attack on 5 January to orchestrate the act.
Earlier, the ED had also claimed that when their officers accompanied by CAPF personnel were attacked by over 1,000 people on 5 January, Shahjahan was at his residence in front of which the attack took place, citing the call details of his two cell phones. The CBI counsel on Thursday also moved a plea for recording the statements of three individuals in the case. Sources said the three individuals have voluntarily agreed to record their statements, claiming that they were being falsely implicated by the state police to safeguard Shahjahan and his associates.