Sheikh Shahjahan faces more heat: ED raids multiple locations in Sandeshkhali in land-grabbing case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting raids at multiple locations in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali in connection with a land-grabbing case against arrested and expelled TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan. Multiple women in Sandeshkhali have accused Shahjahan of grabbing their lands on one pretext or the other. 

On January 5, a team of ED officials came under attack when they had gone to raid Shahjahan's home in connection with a ration scam. While he was on the run, more complaints surfaced against the strongman, forcing the police to lodge FIRs. He was arrested on February 29 following a strict order by the Calcutta High Court. Days later, the HC court transferred the case and custody of Shahjahan to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

On Sunday, a court in Basirhat extended the CBI custody of Shajahan by another four days. The CBI got custody of Sheikh on March 6 along with a transfer of investigation on an order of the Calcutta High Court.

The judge of the Basirhat court in North 24 Parganas district granted an extension of Sheikh's custody to CBI by four days on a prayer by the central agency.

The court directed that Sheikh be produced before it again on March 14. Sheikh was produced before the Basirhat court, around 70 km away from Kolkata where he is in CBI custody, under tight security.

The ED officials were attacked by an around 1000-strong mob when they went to search the premises of Sheikh at Sandeshkhali on January 5 in connection with the agency's investigation into an alleged ration distribution scam case, in which a former minister of the state has been arrested.

Land-grab in Sandeshkhali

Sandeshkhali-II's block development officer Arun Kumar Samanta recently informed that they had received around 2,000 complaints, of which more than 600 are related to land-grabbing, according to The Indian Express. 

According to the complaints, Shahjahan and his brother grabbed hundreds of acres of land, but most of the land was not under their names since it was acquired by force, while the ownership never really changed. "In some cases, there were verbal lease contracts where money was promised but never paid."

“There are three ways in which land was grabbed. One, they grabbed ‘rayati’ land of local Adivasis. Two, they grabbed agricultural land from local residents and converted it to fisheries. And three, there are instances of farmers converting agricultural land to fisheries after being promised lease money that was never paid,” the official was quoted as saying by IE.

(With inputs from PTI)