West Bengal police’s inability to arrest Sheikh Shahjahan for 55 days, after a mob organised by him beat up an Enforcement Directorate team and their CRPF escorts, has led to the Opposition and investigators pointing fingers at the alleged secret entente behind the fugitive and key leaders of his Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. The attack took place when the ED officers went to Shahjahan’s house in Sandeshkhali for a raid in connection with the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam, in which the prime accused, former Bengal Food Supplies Minister, Jyoti Priya Mullick is in CBI custody for more than six months.
ED sources say that the agency, apart from the ration scam, is now investigating the links between Shahjahan’s shrimp-farming business and his wholesale fish trade with the party’s bigwigs, due to which he was receiving state protection. When the police finally arrested Shahjahan on 29 February and produced him in court, it claimed that he was arrested early in the morning just 23 km away from his usual haunt, where he and his cohorts had allegedly indulged in wide-spread landgrab, atrocities on poor tribals and sexual exploitation of women of Sandeshkhali.
Opposition leaders and local villagers pointed to Shahjahan’s freshly washed, neatly brushed hair, clean-shaven visage and neatly ironed clothes to debunk the police claims. His body language too, spoke volumes.
Shahjahan swaggered towards the court unfettered, with local police officers following him deferentially. For all practical purposes he could have been a political leader, not an accused criminal, as he wagged a dismissive finger at the media shouting questions. ED officials allege that for years, Shahjahan was a crucial cog in the moneygenerating schemes which directly benefitted the Trinamool Congress and its key leaders.
And that is why the Trinamool Congress and the Mamata Banerjee government went into an overdrive to shield Shahjahan. Dipanjan Chakraborty, security expert and former NSG and RAW operative, who has been following the events closely, told The Sunday Guardian: “The sequence of events makes this very clear.
The state police fails to trace Shahjahan for 55 days, even though people say he was seen roaming about freely. The police arrests him only after the High Court hauls up the police and says the ED, CBI or the state police is free to arrest him. The state police arrests him only to ensure that he does not fall into the hands of the Central agencies.
Though the Trinamool officially suspends Shahjahan for six years, its government puts up one of the priciest advocates in the country—Abhishek Manu Singhvi—to move the Supreme Court to prevent his handing over to the CBI as had been ordered by the Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice. Why else would the state government move heaven and earth to protect a man like Shahjahan?”
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, said: “The links between the Trinamool’s topmost leaders and criminals like Shahjahan are out in the open now. When Sheikh Shahjahan was in the ‘shelter’ of Mamata Police, before his so called arrest, one Mamata Police officer named Aminul unofficially confiscated his iPhone and handed it over to his senior officials. My reliable source is unsure whether the mobile phone is right now in their custody or has been destroyed completely. I urge the CBI to look into this. The mobile number 97338 04506 was used in the phone. Sheikh Shahjahan used this device to communicate with the top brass of the Tolamool (extortionist) Party.”
Dipanjan Chakraborty says: “I too have received source-based information about Shahjahan’s business links with key leaders of the Trinamool Congress. You must understand that Shahjahan was running a lucrative shrimp business on a free model. He forcibly took over the land belonging to the tribals, flooded them with salt water and did his shrimp-farming without paying them a penny. He forced people to work for free. And all the shrimp was sold through his fish wholesale market. He also exported the shrimp. And for all this to happen, he needed overseas links, knowledge about exports and muscle power and control over the police administration. This was given to him thanks to his links with the ruling party’s top leaders who ensured that nobody could disturb him. Can anyone carry out activities in such a brazen way otherwise?”
“Over-invoicing and under-invoicing are routinely done in order to launder money. Shahjahan exported shrimps to other countries using the conducive environment created by the powers that be. For example, he could send Rs 100 worth of shrimps and bill it for Rs 800. He would receive Rs 800 legally. But this would be the part of the hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees that the top leaders of the Trinamool have made through their various scams and sent abroad. Once this money comes back, it is legitimate and no one can question its legitimacy,” he explained.
“It is no wonder that, on the one hand, the Prime Minister is sending out a message of ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao’, on the other hand, Mamata is sending out a message of ‘Shahajahan bachao’,” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed while discussing the nexus. It’s a different matter that Trinamool leaders deny all these allegations.