Absconding Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, accused of alleged sexual atrocities and land grabbing in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, was arrested on Thursday morning after being on the run for 55 days. According to police, the TMC leader was arrested from a house in Minakhan, around 30 km away from the island of Sandeshkhali on the outskirts of Sunderbans, in North 24 Parganas district.
Sheikh was hiding in the house along with a few associates.
After the arrest, he was taken to the Basirhat court, around 65 km from Kolkata, where he is being kept in a lockup till he is produced before a judge later in the day. Huge police deployments have been made at the court premises to maintain the law and order situation.
Additional forces were also deployed in parts of Sandeshkhali, which Sheikh is accused of turning into his fiefdom over the last decade, to prevent any further flare-up of the situation.
He was taken into custody within 24 hours of the Calcutta High Court stating that the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the West Bengal Police can arrest him.
Sheikh was at large since an ED team that went to raid his house in connection with the alleged ration scam was attacked by a mob of around 1,000 people on January 5.
According to police, he was traced with the help of his mobile phone’s tower location.
“Shiekh was changing his location from time to time. He was spotted with the help of his mobile phone’s tower location,” a police officer said.
Who is Shahjahan Sheikh?
Known to residents as ‘Betaj Badshah’, Sheikh Shahjahan is an influential person associated with Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, a border area in the North 24 Parganas district. Before the TMC leader made headlines after Sandeshkhali allegations, his backers attacked ED and CAPF personnel during an attempt to raid his house in connection with the ration scam.
Protests are underway in North 24 Parganas district against Sheikh Shahjahan and his supporters over allegations of land grabbing and sexually abusing local women.
Sheikh has been absconding since an Enforcement Directorate team that raided his house in connection with an alleged ration scam was attacked by a mob last month.
An accused in many cases, Sheikh was born into an extremely poor family but locals his name is now a force to reckon with in Sandeshkhali. Most of the complainants claimed that Shajahan was actively involved in the forcible acquisition of their land and the torturing of local women.
While Shahjahan holds the post of zilla parishad in this area, his career started with the Left regime in 2006. He began as a close aide of CPI(M) leader Moslem Sheikh, on whose behalf he would collect money and gradually began to dabble in real estate and fisheries in this area.
Sheikh joined the Trinamool Congress in 2013 and, since, has become close to former minister Jyotipriyo Mallick.
In 2019 when three people were killed in a BJP-TMC clash, Sheikh’s name was linked to the incident, however, the TMC leader said it was only to malign his image.
Locals say Sheikh has alleged involvement in various illegal activities since 2006 but no action was taken against him due to his closeness with powerful TMC leaders. Sources alleged that he helped rig the elections in the area and, therefore, was important to the political party in power.
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