Snubbed by the Calcutta High Court, West Bengal Police have withdrawn a supplementary charge-sheet in a past murder case against suspended Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan.
He is the accused mastermind of the 5 January attack on ED and CAPF teams at Sandeshkhali.
City police sources said the action of withdrawing the supplementary charge-sheet has also been informed to the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge Bench of Justice Jay Sengupta. On 1 April, the justice described the supplementary charge-sheet as “contempt-of-court” and cautioned issuing the necessary rule against the state police.
The matter pertains to an old case related to the murder of three BJP workers at Sandeshkhali, in which the state police filed its charge-sheet without including the name of Shahjahan though the latter was the prime accused in the case.
The family members of the victim later approached the single-judge Bench of Justice Sengupta, objecting to the non-inclusion of Shahjahan’s name in the charge-sheet. After that, the bench had recently put an interim stay on the investigation being carried out by the state police.
However, when the matter came up for hearing on 1 April, Justice Sengupta noted that the state police filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the same case even when the interim stay order was in place.
Thereafter, Justice Sengupta expressed his displeasure over the development and questioned how the state police could file a supplementary charge-sheet after the court put a stay on the investigation.
He also directed the state police to immediately withdraw the supplementary charge-sheet or face contempt of court charges.