ED, TMC leader's family file police complaints against each other

Amid a political uproar over the assault on an Enforcement Directorate team in West Bengal, the family of Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh and the central agency on Saturday filed police complaints against each other in connection with a raid during which the ED officials were attacked and injured by a mob.

The police also lodged a suo motu case against the ED officers, who were conducting the raid in connection with the ration distribution scam, on the charges of molestation, forcible entrance and theft.

The central agency sleuths also faced a similar type of mob resistance during the arrest of another TMC leader connected to the scam.

The ED issued a lookout notice for Shahjahan as there are apprehensions that he might flee the country following the incident in which three ED officers were injured and several vehicles damaged by a mob at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, which is close to the Bangladesh border.

Sahajahan's family members filed a police complaint, alleging that the central agency raided their residence without prior notice and broke locks to gain entry.

The ED also lodged a complaint against Sahajahan and his supporters for assaulting its officers.

A senior policeman with Basirhat Police District confirmed that three complaints were lodged at Nazat police station.

Meanwhile, ED officers faced resistance again during the arrest of TMC leader and former Bongaon Municipality chairman Shankar Adhya on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

The arrest, following 17 hours of search at Adhya's residence, led to his supporters attempting to obstruct investigators and pelting their vehicles with stones.

CRPF personnel accompanying the ED team intervened, resorting to baton-charging to regain control.

"Adhya was also questioned. He was arrested as his replies were not satisfactory," an ED officer said.

"After the arrest, his supporters, led by women, tried to stop the officers from taking him along with them," he said.

However, the assault was not of the scale compared to what the central agency sleuths witnessed on Friday morning at Sahajahan's residence.

Adhya, like Sahajahan, is considered close to state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick, previously arrested in connection with the alleged scam.

A Kolkata court remanded Adhya to 14 days' ED custody.

The ED also issued a lookout notice against Sahajahan.

"We have issued a lookout notice for the TMC leader, and necessary instructions have been sent to the Airports Authority of India," stated an ED officer.

Sahajahan, in a purported audio message to his followers, claimed that he is innocent and the ED raid was a BJP conspiracy to malign the TMC government.

The incident continued to roil Bengal's political landscape, with the BJP demanding that TMC leaders arrested by central agencies be held in prisons outside the state.

"Central agencies should take all TMC leaders arrested in various scams from the state and lodge them in prisons outside Bengal so that the ruling party cannot conspire to foment mob violence in the name of protest against the investigations into corruption cases," BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said.

Responding to it, TMC spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar condemned the attack on ED personnel but highlighted that the agency conducted raids without informing local authorities.

"ED and other agencies have conducted raids at properties of popular TMC leaders at the behest of the saffron party in the last two years," he said.

He alleged that the ED kept the police and administration in the dark before undertaking such operations, adding that the police could have controlled the situation.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who had previously called for the imposition of the President's rule, said, "The attacks on ED officials by TMC supporters is a blot on the image of West Bengal, where even personnel of investigating agencies are beaten up for probing alleged loot of public money by the ruling party."

Meanwhile, two of the injured ED officers were discharged from a private hospital on Saturday evening after officers from Basirhat Police recorded their statement regarding Friday's incident, sources said.

The other officer who is still undergoing treatment at the HDU unit of the hospital was not questioned by the police officers.