Union Minister and BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal over the Sandeshkhali incident. He said there is a total ‘breakdown of law and order situation’ in the state and called the West Bengal police “totally biased”.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Puri also hit out at the TMC government in West Bengal for opposing the Calcutta High Court’s order to hand over the custody of Shahjahan Sheikh, a former Trinamul strongman accused of extortion, land grab, and sexual assault in Sandeshkhali, to the CBI and called it a matter of “great shame”.

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“The state police is completely biased. They are not handing him (Sheikh) over to the CBI. It is a matter of shame that the state government allows such kind of an incident to take place and rather shields him from arrest even after 55 days of the attack on the ED team in Sandeshkhali. They are still not handing him over and saying that the investigation should not go to the Central agency…” the Union Minister said.

Puri said that although the TMC is not denying the offence, it’s still providing political cover to Sheikh. It is not the accused but the state that has gone in appeal to the Supreme Court, he said.

“For the first time, I have seen that the state government is appealing to the Supreme Court against an HC order to hand over the investigation to the CBI,” he added.

The custody of the accused Shahjahan Sheikh should be handed over to the CBI by 4.30 pm on Wednesday, the court said.

The Calcutta High Court also observed that the state police played hide-and-seek in the matter.

“The accused is a highly political influencer. The investigation should be handed over to the CBI and the custody of the accused by 4:15 pm today,” the High Court said.

The High Court had on Tuesday directed that the investigation into a mob attack on ED officials, who had gone to conduct a search of Sheikh’s premises at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on January 5 in connection with a ration scam probe, be transferred to the CBI.

After weeks of inaction, Sheikh Shahjahan was finally arrested by the West Bengal police on February 29 following which the Basirhat court in North 24 Parganas district remanded him to 10-day police custody.