The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday moved a petition before the division bench headed by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam seeking an immediate hearing of its petition to allow the CBI to probe the attack on an ED team in Sandeshkhali without any interference from state police.
The division bench assured the ED’s counsel the case would be heard soon. A court source said the petition was likely to be heard on Wednesday.
On January 5, a mob attacked an ED team at Sarberia village in North 24-Parganas’ Sandeshkhali block, where they had gone to raid the house of local Trinamul leader Shahjahan Sheikh in connection with the probe into alleged corruption in the state’s public distribution system.
Justice Jay Sengupta of Calcutta High Court had issued an order directing the ED and the state police to conduct a joint probe into the attack.
The ED appealed against Justice Sengupta’s order first. Then the state police, too, moved a separate appeal before the Chief Justice’s division bench. Both sought orders to allow independent probes instead of working jointly.
The division bench had said the two petitions would be heard jointly.
Since the appeal had not been heard till Tuesday, the ED moved a petition for immediate hearing.
“The trial court had asked the ED and the state police to file the progress report of the probe on February 12. Only a few days are left, (but) no progress could be made due to the non-cooperation from the state side. So urgent hearing of the petition is needed,” ED counsel Dhiraj Trivedi told the division bench while moving Tuesday’s plea.