Kolkata: Section 144 has been imposed again in 19 areas of the tense Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal from Wednesday. The development came just a day after a single-judge bench of Justice Jai Sengupta of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday struck down the administration’s previous notification imposing Section 144 in almost the entire Sandeshkhali.
Justice Sengupta quashed the previous notification on the grounds that such prohibitory orders could be issued only in places identified as disturbed areas. Now taking a lesson from that order, the administration has issued a new notification imposing Section 144 in 19 different areas of Sandeshkhali. While in the previous notification, Section 144 was imposed in both Sandeshkhali-I and Sandeshkhali-II blocks, in the latest notification the 19 areas where prohibitory orders will be imposed are restricted only in Sandeshkhali-II block.
Sources said the latest notification has brought under prohibitory orders only those 19 areas where maximum protests were held by women since last Thursday against the arrest of absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates. There are many allegations against Shah Jahan and his associates including forcibly expropriating land from local villagers, forcing them to provide free labor in businesses they ran, and even sexually harassing local women.
A team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) has already conducted a field inspection in Sandeshkhali. A team of the National Scheduled Castes Commission (NCSC) is scheduled to conduct a similar field inspection there on Thursday. A single-judge bench of Justice Apurba Sinha Roy of the Calcutta High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incidents at Sandeshkhali and permitted hearing of two separate cases in the matter.
The single-judge bench also directed the state government to file a report in the court before the next date of hearing. The matter will be heard again on February 20.
