Sheikh Shahjahan's arrest: Political slugfest erupts in Bengal

Kolkata, Feb 29 (IANS) A political slugfest erupted in West Bengal over the arrest of Sheikh Shahjahan, the Trinamool Congress leader and accused mastermind of the January 5 attack on the ED and CAPF sleuths.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has given full credit to the police for accomplishing this arrest and reiterated its earlier stand that the arrest was possible only after the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam cleared the legal hurdles for accomplishing the arrest.

A couple of hours after the arrest, Trinamool Congress spokesman Kunal Ghosh claimed that the observation of the court was that the police could not perform as it should have. "Courtesy, the Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, the court has removed the legal hurdles and henceforth the state police have done what is necessary," Ghosh claimed.

At the same time, he has demanded that the CBI should now act in arresting the leader of opposition in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari in relation to Narada video scam and superstar Mithun Chakraborty who was the former brand ambassador of chit-fund entity Alchemist Group.

“I hope that initiatives will now start for the process of arresting Brij Bhushan accused of sexually harassing the women wrestlers. Let ED be active in nabbing the bank loan defaulters,” Ghosh said.

Claiming that Trinamool Congress was trying to glorify the police when in reality the arrest was prompted by the Calcutta High Court's strong observations in the matter, former CPI(M) legislator from Sandeshkhali Nirapada Sardar said since the beginning he has been saying that Shahjahan was in Sandeshkhali only.

“Since the very first day I had been saying that Shahjahan was in Sandeshkhali after being witnessed by the local people except the local cops. I had also been saying since the beginning that he will not be arrested unless the Trinamool Congress gives the green signal for his arrest. Now after the ruling party has felt that time has come for his arrest and it happened,” said Sardar, who was recently arrested by police on charges of instigating the local people, especially women against the local Trinamool Congress leader and was released on bail following strong observations of the Calcutta High Court.

Virtually echoing Sardar, BJP’s former national vice-president and party Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh said that the police were aware of the whereabouts of Shahjahan and were actually giving shelter to him. “Now the cops had no other option but to arrest him. Previously when people approached the local police with complaints against him the cops even denied registering FIRs,” Ghosh said.

Governor C.V. Ananda Bose expressed satisfaction over the arrest. “I am happy that things are moving in the right direction finally,” said Bose.