The Enforcement Directorate on Monday prayed before the Calcutta High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam for permission to challenge an order by a single-judge bench for a joint probe into the attack on its team during a raid on the house of Trinamul Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh.
A division bench headed by the Chief Justice allowed the prayer and asked the central agency to submit its petition for a hearing. Sources said the central agency would submit the petition later this week.
Last week, Justice Jay Sengupta had passed an order announcing the formation of a joint investigation team made up of officers of the CBI and the Bengal police to probe the January 5 attack in the Sandeshkhali block in North 24-Parganas.
The Enforcement Directorate team had gone to Sandeshkhali to raid the house of Shahjahan in connection with the public distribution system scam.
The state had submitted the name of the superintendent of police, Islampur police district, Jaspreet Singh to represent it on the investigation team. The CBI was supposed to submit the name of an officer of the rank of superintendent of police.
The court had said that none of the officers of the state police who were part of the earlier probe team should be included in the special investigation team.
On Monday, the ED counsel told the court that the central agency did not
want the state to conduct the investigation and cited instances of alleged non-cooperation.
The Bengal police started three cases after the mob attack. One of the cases was against the ED officers for alleged house trespass, outrage of modesty, criminal intimidation and mischief. The case was drawn up based on a complaint lodged by Shahjahan’s family.
The two other cases were against the violent mob and Shahjahan, who has been accused of instigating the assault.
The Bengal police have failed to arrest the Trinamul leader, prompting the central agency to raise questions of bias.
Chief Justice Sivagnanam accepted the prayer submitted by the Enforcement Directorate and allowed them to submit their petition challenging the order passed by Justice Sengupta.