A probe into alleged incidences of land grab and torture of women in Sandeshkhali by the CBI will be good, Sheikh Shahjahan said on Thursday.
“CBI todontyo hole khub bhalo hobey (If a probe is carried out by the CBI, it will be good),” Shahjahan, the former Trinamul Congress strongman from Sandeshkhali, said on Thursday morning while boarding a car to visit ESI Hospital in Joka from the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s Salt Lake office for a customary health check-up.
Sporting a white shirt and trousers, Shahjahan was being escorted out of the CGO Complex in Salt Lake when journalists told him about Calcutta High Court ordering a CBI probe into alleged atrocities in Sandeshkhali and an attack on ED officials on January 5.
“Shobtai bhalo hobey (everything will be good),” Shahjahan said while replying to a query if the ED probe would also be good.
Shahjahan and his aides are accused of the alleged atrocities at Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas. He is also the prime accused in the case related to the attack on the ED team at Sandeshkhali.
Shahjahan’s admission during the day contrasted what he had said a week ago while denying the charges that the ED had levelled against him. “I’m a victim of political conspiracy. You can understand who is behind this conspiracy,” he had said.
BJP leader Agnimitra Paul said: “Trinamul supremo had been assuring the likes
of Shahjahan that they would be protected. After his arrest, she has washed her hands off and Shahjahan has realised this.”
Later on Thursday, minister and Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim compared the CBI to traffic police whom motorists tend to ignore.
“The BJP has reduced the CBI to the traffic police, whom motorists tend to ignore. The fear factor (in a CBI probe) works once, twice or thrice. But not beyond that,” Hakim said.
On Thursday, the CBI created a dedicated e-mail ID — sandeshkhali@cbi.gov.in — at which victims of alleged land grab could lodge their complaints, officials said.
The high court had on Wednesday instructed the central agency to set up a portal for lodging complaints.
