Taking advantage of the Calcutta High Court order that stopped further investigation on 7 February, the BJP and CPM tried to grab Sandeshkhali by maligning leaders of Trinamul Congress, alleged Kunal Ghosh, state general secretary of Trinamul Congress.

But, hours after Calcutta High Court clarified that there is “no stay order” on the arrest of Trinamul Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan and the state police is free to arrest the TMC leader, the party said that the prime accused in the Sandeshkhali case, who has been at large since last month, will be arrested in a week.

“We are confident that Sheikh Shahjahan will be arrested within seven days,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said at a press conference along with education minister Bratya Basu on Monday.

Ghosh said that the Calcutta High Court has given back the right to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan to the West Bengal Police after party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee brought up the issue of “legal complication”.

Addressing the media Mr Ghosh quoted an order of the Chief Justice’s Bench, said an SIT comprising representatives from both the state police and CBI was formed following an order of the Single Bench of the high court to probe into the matter. However, the Division Bench gave a stay order on 7 February. The violence broke out at Sandeshkhali on 8 February.

Mr Ghosh said Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek had raised the issue on Sunday and the high court took up the matter and said there was no bar in the arrest of Sheikh Sahajahan.

Mr Ghosh alleged the demonstrations that had been organized by the local people were actually engineered by the BJP and CPM in connivance with a section of the press.

“When the ministers are visiting the area and are willing to talk to the people, local people are seen holding protests and shouting go-back slogans,” he said.

Mr Basu said, “Local people had torched the houses of Trinamul leaders and attacked their family members and children in the name of movement. “This is unacceptable. They are making chaos and creating trouble just to malign the state government,” he said.

Mr Ghosh said the real game is to grab the area before the Lok Sabha polls. “They are deliberately maligning Trinamul Congress as a bid to reap political benefit and will have to carry on with the programme till Narendra Modi visits North 24-Parganas.”