NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday took Shahjahan Sheikh in its custody on the orders of Calcutta high court, which had set 4.15pm deadline for the West Bengal government to hand over Sheikh to the central investigating agency. A team of CBI officers reached West Bengal police headquarters to take custody of Shahjahan Sheikh, who has since been suspended by Trinamool Congress.
The CBI is investigating the case of attack on Enforcement Directorate officials in Sandeshkhali and has registered three FIRs related to incidents on January 5. The ED officials had gone to Sandeshkhali to raid the house of Sheikh, who allegedly has close links with arrested former state food minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam in West Bengal.
The CBI is now investigating three cases – alleged attack on ED officers by a mob on the complaint by its officers, allegations against ED officials levelled by the guard of suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and a suo motu case registered by Nazat police station about the attack on ED officers.
On Tuesday, the high court had ordered transfer of Shahjahan Sheikh’s custody and set a deadline of 4.30pm for the Bengal government. A CBI team had reached the CID office in Kolkata with paramilitary forces to take custody of Sheikh. However, the state government did not hand over Shahjahan Sheikh as it had approached the Supreme Court against the high court order.
When the matter was raised by CBI in high court today, a new deadline of 4.15pm was set for the transfer of the Sandeshkhali accused. Meanwhile, Mamata government’s plea in the Supreme Court against the high court order is yet to be heard by the apex court.