Two arrested by Bengal Police in ED attack case

Kolkata, Jan 12 (IANS) The West Bengal Police nabbed two men in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the first arrests made after a week when an ED team was attacked in Sandeshkhali, said officials on Friday.

The arrests were made by the cops of Nazat Police Station in the district. State police sources said that the two arrested persons are Sukamal Sardar and Mehboob Molla. They are identified from the video footage of the attack on the ED and CAPF personnel.

Sources said that they had been arrested from a secret hideout within one of the innumerable pisciculture farms in the area. However, the principal mastermind behind the attack and the local Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, at whose residence ED sleuths attempted raid and search operations on January 5, is still absconding.

ED has already issued a lookout notice against Shahjahan. The border outposts of the Border Security Force (BSF) have also been alerted in anticipation that the absconding ruling party leader might escape to neighbouring Bangladesh, whose international border with Indian is very close to the place where the attack on ED sleuths took place.

The arrest of the two accused happened just a day after Calcutta High Court’s single- judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered an interim stay on any investigation by West Bengal Police against ED officials based on an FIR filed at the Nazat Police Station against those sleuths who were attacked along with CAPF personnel on January 5.

Justice Mantha while passing the order had also questioned whether the police of Nazat Police Station had conducted even a basic ground investigation before registering the FIR against the ED officials.

Meanwhile, the state BJP has described the first two arrests as mere eyewash since the principal mastermind behind the attack is still absconding. The leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said the police were well aware about him and were also providing protection to the absconding leader.