Sandeshkhali violence: ED moves High Court, state police knocks on doors of agency
The day the Bengal Police arrived at the Enforcement Directorate’s regional office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, allegedly to record statements of agency officials in connection with last week’s Sandeshkhali violence, the agency filed a complaint in the Calcutta High Court on charges of assault, intimidation, harassment. And accused. Obstructing investigation against uniformed personnel of the state in Bengal ration distribution and paddy procurement scam cases.
Five days have passed since a mob attacked a five-member ED raid team in Sandeshkhali, North 24-Parganas, injuring three agency officials, yet the main accused in the case, Trinamool leader Shahjahan Shaikh, remains elusive. . Bengal Police has registered three cases in connection with the ED raid in Sandeshkhali last Friday and the team facing mob anger. One of these cases is against ED itself. Police said a case has been initiated against ED officials who were part of the raid team under sections related to house trespass, mischief and criminal intimidation.
While the second case was registered against an “unknown mob” that attacked “government officials” and journalists, the third case is against “Shahjahan Shaikh and associates” in connection with the attack on central agency officials. The FIR against the agency was lodged in Nazaat PS on the basis of a complaint lodged by the caretaker of Shaikh’s residence, the second was lodged by the police suo motu and the third was lodged by the ED on complaints lodged by it.
On the same day, a separate case was also initiated in Bongaon PS in connection with the alleged attack on ED officials during the raid at Shankar Adhya’s residence, where the agency officials had to face the wrath of the mob after their arrest. Trinamool leader.
On Wednesday morning, DSP of Basirhat police, Sanand Goswami, two policemen and a person with camera equipment (to videograph the statements) reached the CGO complex, but failed to record the statement of the agency’s deputy director, who was the complainant. Left soon after. From ED. “The complainant is busy with other work and could not record his statement,” Goswami told media persons while going out.
A team of state police officers led by DSP (HQ), Bongaon, Deependra Tamang, also later reached the ED office for the same purpose, but were refused cooperation on the same grounds, it is learned.
Meanwhile, the agency filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court seeking judicial intervention over its allegation that despite the mob’s anger directed at agency officials, the police went ahead and initiated a case against the agency. Refuting the allegation that the ED tried to break into Shaikh’s house, which was locked from inside, without a court warrant, investigators say the officers had all the necessary paper documents, including the warrant, with them while conducting the search operation .
The petition was accepted by a bench of Justice Joy Sengupta and the matter is likely to be heard this week.
The ED had earlier alleged that despite repeated attempts, it failed to secure copies of her complaint as well as the FIR lodged by the police against her and said the agency was given information only about the FIR lodged against her. That was the information. This was through media reports. It had also pointed the finger at the state police for taking a soft stance on its attackers by diluting the cases imposed on the miscreants and alleged that the police were mere spectators during the attack in Bongaon despite being informed in advance about the scheduled raid by the agency. Remained.
In a separate development in the case related to Shankar Adhya’s arrest, the ED claimed in the court that it has identified around 95 forex trading companies which were used to launder the scam money. Six of these companies were run in the names of Aadhya’s closest relatives, while the rest operated under fake names.
The agency issued appearance summons to Malay Adhya, brother of the arrested leader and owner of a company, on Wednesday, but the witness issued the appearance summons to the agency.
