The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday evening arrested suspended Trinamul strongman Sheikh Shahajan in connection with a money laundering case linked to land parcels "grabbed" from Sandeshkhali farmers and converted into commercial fish ponds.
This is the third arrest of Shahjahan, currently lodged at Basirhat jail. He was previously arrested by Bengal police and the CBI.
Armed with permission from a Basirhat court, ED sleuths arrested Shahjahan after interrogating him for over three hours on Saturday evening.
"He was arrested around 5pm on Saturday in a money laundering case," said an ED source.
Shahjahan's latest arrest prompted BJP leaders to allege that it would expose Trinamul's involvement more comprehensively in land-grab cases.
"The arrest of Shahjahan, this time by the ED, will be a major blow to Trinamul. The amount of land that Trinamul leaders grabbed forcibly from poor farmers is not small. It is not only Shahjahan, but a lot of leaders in both North and South 24-Parganas districts are accused of land-grab and changing the character of the land," said Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP's Rajya Sabha member.
"That the land had been grabbed has been proven as the state government has come forward to return plots to original owners. We think that this arrest would again expose Trinamul wrongdoings," added Bhattacharya, also the BJP's chief spokesperson in Bengal.
A source said there were at least 15 land-grab complaints lodged by villagers of Sandeshkhali against Shahjahan, who was first arrested by state police last month in connection with the January 5 attack on the team of ED officials when they went to raid his house in connection with his alleged involvement in PDS (public distribution system) scam. The CBI later arrested the suspended Trinamul leader following a Calcutta High Court order.
The ED on Saturday morning applied at the Basirhat court seeking permission to interrogate Shahjahan in connection with land-grab complaints as part of the money laundering case. The Basirhat court allowed the central investigative agency to quiz him in jail between 10am and 5pm on any day.
As soon as the court granted permission, a group of ED officials went inside the jail to interrogate Shahjahan.
A source said the ED was likely to produce the Trinamul leader in the Basirhat court on Sunday and seek custody to interrogate the leader to reveal the money trail in connection with the case under the PMLA filed on February 21. A source said the ED wanted to find out how the income that came from the fish ponds, locally called bheris, was siphoned off by Shahjahan and his aides.
Sandeshkhali started hitting the headlines on February 7 when villagers of the remote island, especially its women, hit the streets against Shahjahan and some other local Trinamul leaders, accusing them of land-grab, torture and sexual assault of women.
Although the BJP leaders so far pitted the issue of atrocities on women against Trinamul, many party insiders predicted that the level of corruption by the ruling dispensation would reveal itself as the ED takes forward its investigation into the money laundering aspects.
"We think many more local Trinamul leaders will be arrested in this connection," said a BJP leader.
Contacted, Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said he would not make any comment on the issue as it was under investigation.
