Fact-finding group is not allowed in Sandeshkhali

KOLKATA/SANDESHKHALI: According to MP and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress isn’t protecting party strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, and the Calcutta High Court’s stay on the SIT inquiry into the events in Sandeshkhali is what has kept him at large.

In the volatile North 24-Parganas area, the statement attributing the status quo to court action came just after TMC ousted Shahjahan’s colleague Ajit Maity from his position as regional president, less than twenty-four hours after he was appointed to it.

Maity’s arrest by police for locking himself up for four and a half hours in order to flee female demonstrators in Sandeshkhali served as the catalyst for the action.
A six-person impartial fact-finding team headed by Justice (retd) L Narasimha Reddy was detained and taken into custody in Kolkata on suspicion of “breach of peace” while traveling through Sandeshkhali. They were taken back into the city and freed on bail.

Section 144 is enforced there, as we are aware. We planned to travel in groups of two, so that shouldn’t present any issues. Political activists and ministers have reportedly been there, according to media reports,” Reddy added.
During the groundbreaking of a water supply project in Maheshtala, Kolkata, Abhishek said that if an HC division bench hadn’t tied their hands, police would have already arrested Shahjahan.

“Following the Jan 5 episode when ED officials were attacked at Sandeshkhali, ED filed a complaint and HC ordered constitution of a SIT,” according to him.
“ED filed an appeal for a stay in HC about ten days later, and it was granted. As a result, state police are not even allowed to issue an arrest warrant or issue a summons. The hearing is scheduled on March 6.
Banerjee said that police detained TMC members Uttam Sardar and Shibu Hazra in response to complaints from women. “When TMC did not spare Partha Chatterjee or Jyoti Priya Mallick, who is Sheikh Shahjahan?” said he.