Sandeshkhali: ED moves Calcutta High Court for urgent hearing in plea to transfer probe into attack on its officers to CBI

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday urged the Calcutta High Court to grant early hearing in its plea seeking transfer of the probe related to the brutal attack on its officers in Sandeshkhali, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). .Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Dhiraj Trivedi confirmed the development saying, "We moved a mentioning note before the Chief Justice for an early hearing of our appeal against a single-judge's order in the ration distribution scam. We have urged the bench to hear our appeal on Monday (March 3) when the bench is going to hear all the matters pertaining the Sandeshkhali incidents."However, the bench is yet to decide whether it would grant an urgent hearing or not.Notably, the division bench led by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam had earlier this month, stayed an order passed by single-judge Justice Jay Sengupta, who had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the attacks on ED officers.Justice Sengupta had constituted a SIT comprising officers from the CBI as well as the local police of Sandeshkhali to probe the incident.The ED sleuths were severely injured after they were attacked by the supporters of TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh when they went to conduct raids at his Akunjipara residence in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.Sheikh is also the prime accused in over 43 FIRs lodged under charges of rape and 7 FIRs registered for allegedly forcibly taking over the tribal lands. He is also booked for sexually assaulting several women in Sandeshkhali and was arrested on Thursday early morning..Pertinently, both the ED and CBI both have opposed the West Bengal Police in probing the Sandeshkhali violene and land grabbing case which is being considered separately. On Wednesday, both the central agencies had told the bench led by the Chief Justice that they do not want the State Police to investigate the cases against Sheikh apprehending that the State might 'dilute' the case against him.During the hearing on Wednesday (February 28), DSG Trivedi appeared for the ED and submitted that if the local police is permitted to probe the case, they might destroy the evidence.Appearing for the CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju too had submitted that the central agency has serious grievances against the State Police in investigating the case."Our apprehension is that if the State Police arrests Shahjahan, they might dilute the case against him. Ultimately, if the probe is transferred to the CBI... Even we want him to be arrested but not by a wrong agency. We have a serious grievance against the State agency. We are saying that the State Police are colluding and once they are colluding they would not let the case reach its logical end," the ASG had submitted. The ASG had even made it clear to the Court that the CBI does not want a joint probe with the State Police and would want to proceed independently. He had, therefore, urged the bench to hear the submissions on this aspect. However, the bench had said it would hear that case on March 4, as fixed earlier.