Top Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials are in discussions with their CBI and NIA counterparts on how to get the suspended Trinamool Congress leader into the remand of a central agency.
Presently, Sheikh Shahjahan is in the custody of West Bengal CID. Sheikh Shahjahan is the accused mastermind in the 5 January attack on ED and CAPF personnel at Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas district. On Thursday, in a plea to a Division Bench, the ED had drawn the attention of the Calcutta High Court to the possibility of crucial evidence being tampered with while Shahjahan was in CID custody. Now, top ED officials are working on technical possibilities to get the accused out of the state police’s custody.
Sources said that the manner in which a section of the state police had held the ED responsible for inaction and the resultant delay of 55 days in the arrest of Shahjahan, has made the central agency sleuths nervous as they don’t expect any cooperation from West Bengal cops. After Shahjahan’s arrest on Thursday, the additional director general of police (South Bengal), Supratim Sarkar, told media persons, “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.” Given this cold war, the ED is also trying for a court order to get the accused out of the state police’s remand and into the custody of a central agency.