Shahjahan Sheikh
Nowadays one name is making a lot of headlines across the country… Shahjahan Sheikh. Till a few days ago, this name was limited to its own area like Anonymous, but the attack on ED officials on January 5 made this name popular in the entire country. Almost two decades before he came into the national spotlight, 42-year-old Trinamool Congress (TMC) functionary Shahjahan Shaikh first faced legal action in 2006, when he was summoned to the police station for the first time. Shaikh was then 20 years old and worked as an agent in a fish market in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal.
Sheikh had no fear
A police officer said, even at that time Shahjahan Sheikh had no fear. The reason for this was soon understood. Within just half an hour of this action, Sheikh was released and after a few days the police station in-charge was transferred. Sheikh’s association with a local official of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), ruling at that time, clearly came in handy.
Amount more than ₹2 crore, fleet of 17 cars
Sheikh’s rags to riches story continued as he maintained his political clout by quitting TMC a year before it came to power for the first time in 2011 after 34 years of Left Front rule. Over the years, he has bank deposits of more than ₹2 crore, a fleet of 17 cars and 40 bighas of land. This is a far cry from his brick kiln days, where he worked as a daily wage laborer for just ₹50.
most influential in the field
According to Hindustan Times news, the police officer said that Sheikh has been on the right wing of power for the last 20 years. “From 2004 to 2010, he was considered the most influential person in the Sandeshkhali sector. In 2010, he switched sides and joined Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. Within a few years, he became the convener of TMC Sandeshkhali, North 24 Parganas.”
“Police do not have the courage to file FIR”
The officer further said on condition of anonymity that until Sheikh came into limelight, his reign of terror was so effective that the local police did not dare to register a case against him. He said that between 2020 and 2023, 16 land grabbing, 13 murder or attempt to murder, 5 rape and 17 criminal conspiracy complaints were filed against him in various police stations. “But none of these complaints could take the form of an FIR,” he said. He has no fear of law. He says openly, no one can even touch me.”
He further said that Sheikh might never have been prosecuted had a mob of his supporters not on January 5 allegedly attacked an ED team that had gone to search his premises in a money laundering case linked to the alleged ration distribution scam.
Fed up with terror, people of Sandeshkhali took to the streets
Repeated protests in Sandeshkhali have kept Sheikh in the news. The people of Sandeshkhali took to the streets demanding the arrest of Shahjahan and his associates on charges of sexual harassment and land grabbing. Let us inform that local TMC officials and Shaikh’s associates Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar are among the 18 people who have been arrested in connection with complaints of sexual harassment, land grabbing and inciting violence in Sandeshkhali.
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