Bengal BJP draws police scrutiny over protest against attacks on ED

Six days after an Enforcement Directorate raiding team and its escorting CRPF jawans were beaten up by supporters of a Trinamool Congress leader in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal while the police was nowhere to be found, the police today pulled out all stops to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from holding its scheduled gherao of the local police station.
On January 5, a raiding party of the ED had gone to raid the house of a district Trinamool Congress leader, Sheikh Shahjajan, in Sandeshkhali in connection with alleged irregularities in the state’s ration system when its members were beaten up by a mob of 1,000 people and forced to retreat. Sheikh Shahjahan has not been seen since then.

On Thursday, a procession of BJP supporters, led by state president Sukanta Majumdar, was prevented from reaching the local Nyazat police station to record its protest against police inaction and for its failure to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan. The State police enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 to prevent the BJP supporters from reaching Nyazat police station.

Sukanta Majumdar alleged that the State police which remained inactive when ED officials were being attacked, had set up “three layers of barricades” to prevent BJP supporters from going ahead with their plan to gherao the police station. “Is this Kashmir that the police are stopping members of the world’s largest political party from carrying out its scheduled programme?” he asked. He also alleged that the policewomen were deployed to stop the BJP supporters, so that the latter could be booked under non-bailable sections for alleged molestation.

“This is all being done on the orders of Mamata Banerjee. Sheikh Shahjahan is being sheltered by the Trinamool Congress’ top leadership because he shared his ill-gotten gains with the Food Minister Jyotipriya Mallick who, in turn, passed it on to his seniors in the party,” Majumdar alleged.

He also raised questions about the police’s “over-eagerness in filing FIRs against the ED officials based on false complaints made by Shahjahan’s domestic help”.