A lawyer appearing for Trinamul leader Shahjahan Sheikh submitted in a court on Monday that his client was ready to “cooperate” with the investigators and hence, should get interim protection from coercive action till the hearing of his plea for anticipatory bail is concluded.
Lawyer Sabyasachi Banerjee told the CBI special court that though his client had filed a petition for anticipatory bail, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was repeatedly sending him summons.
It was a ploy by the central agency, the lawyer said, to make it appear that Shahjahan is not cooperating with the investigators.
“When the ED went to raid my client’s house, they did not have adequate reason to do so. After that, three FIRs were lodged. My client was sent summons and given a week’s time to appear before the agency. In between, my client had filed a plea for anticipatory bail. We are only requesting that my client should not be arrested since he is cooperating with the investigation,” Banerjee submitted during the hearing of the plea for anticipatory bail.
Banerjee said that although allegations of cross-border smuggling of currency notes had been made, the ED had not made any inquiries related to that.
ED officers were attacked when they had gone to Sandeshkhali, in North 24-Parganas, to raid Shahjahan’s house on January 5 in connection with the PDS scam.
The judge on Monday asked the defence lawyer why the TMC leader was thinking that he was being summoned as an “accused”, and not as a witness.
The judge then asked the ED lawyer about his reaction to the submission made by Shahjahan. The lawyer said an FIR had been lodged against the ED officers who had come under attack on January 5.
The case will come up for hearing again on February 23.