A few hours after Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Kolkata on Thursday, the ED counsel approached the Calcutta High Court over fears of tampering of evidence.
The ED counsel, Dhiraj Trivedi said that he feared that there would be tampering of evidence while Shahjahan was in state police custody.
The ED counsel drew the attention of the Division Bench of Chief Justice, T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya to the central agency’s prior appeal for an independent CBI probe instead of a probe by a joint team of the CBI and state police.
Trivedi pleaded for a fast-track hearing considering that the Division Bench has already stayed the probe by the joint SIT till 6 March, when the matter will come up for hearing again.
“We fear that because of this, many important documents in the case against him, where the ED is carrying out an investigation, might be tampered with. So we are pleading for a fast track hearing on Friday only,” the ED counsel argued.
After hearing his argument, the Division Bench told the ED counsel that the matter might be considered, though any concrete assurance was not given.
The additional director general of police (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar blamed the ED for not taking any initiative to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan.
“The state police might have some legal hurdles. But the same was not the case with the ED. So, there is the question of why did the ED not arrest him,” said Sarkar.
Meanwhile, the HC Chief Justice, T S Sivagnanam, on Thursday, observed that this court has no sympathy for the Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, who was arrested 55 days after the attack.
He made this observation after Shahjahan’s counsel sought the attention of the Bench of Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya regarding the arrest of his client and wanted to make some submission in the matter.
The Chief Justice also declined to hear any kind of submission and said the submission in the matter will be heard on 4 March, the next hearing in the Sandeshkhali case.
“For the next 10 years you will have to remain very busy with your client. Probably you will have to appoint four to five juniors. This court has absolutely no sympathy for him,” the Chief Justice observed.
It is learnt that Shahjahan has been slapped with charges under several non-bailable sections of the IPC. On Thursday, the public prosecutor also described him as extremely “influential”.