Sandeshkhali remained tense on Tuesday with delegations of political parties and members of civil society groups making a beeline to the strife-torn island in North 24 Parganas.
The police arrested Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Nawshad Siddique and prevented senior State Congress leaders from heading towards Sandeshkhali. Mr. Siddique, who represents the Bhangar constituency in South 24 Parganas district, was arrested near Science City in Kolkata, and taken to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar.
The MLA said that he was supposed to visit multiple areas, including Sandeshkhali, but was arrested several kilometres prior, without any reason being provided.
Also read: Redressal camps fail to contain villagers’ anger in Sandeshkhali
The Congress delegation led by Soumya Aich Roy said that he had been arrested about seven kilometres from Nazat Police Station in Sandeshkhali.
During the day, members of civil society, including actor Badshah Moitra, visited Sandeshkhali and spoke to the locals. Villagers, particularly the women, who have been targeting local Trinamool leaders over the past few days, on Tuesday held protests demanding that the local Integrated Child Development Centre (ICDS) for children be opened up.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former Sandeshkhali Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MLA Nirapada Sardar.
Mr. Sardar, who was MLA of Sandeshkhali from 2006-2011, was arrested by the police for his alleged involvement in violent protests in Sandeshkhali. The CPI(M) MLA was arrested on February 11 over a First Information Report (FIR) filed at the Sandeshkhali Police Station. Questions have been raised in political circles here about the arrest of the former CPI(M) MLA of Sandeshkhali from Kolkata.
Granting bail to the CPI(M) leader, a Division Bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi of the Calcutta High Court raised questions over how the FIR had been registered a day before the police received a complaint, and sought a report from the Superintendent of Police, Basirhat, in this regard.
“It is shocking that a citizen of India is taken into custody on the basis of such police compliant. Police apparently received a complaint of February 10, 2024 on February 9, 2024 when the formal first information report was registered. We grant interim bail to the petitioner and to be released forthwith. Jurisdictional Superintendent of Police will submit a report as to the contents of the police diary and in particular the facts mentioned in this order,” the order by the Division Bench said.
CPI(M) State Secretary Md. Salim said that all false cases lodged by the police needed to be withdrawn and action needed to be taken against the police officers who had been making false charges.
Chhattisgarh CM writes to Mamata
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai has written a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and urged her “immediate intervention and stringent action against the culprits” in the Sandeshkhali incident.
“Injustice against mothers and sisters that have come to light in the Sandeshkhali area of your state is heart-wrenching. Incidents like brutal rape of more than 50 women belonging to tribal communities, grabbing the land from thousands of tribals and even snatching away MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act) wages from them, have tarnished humanity,” Mr. Sai wrote in his letter.
Sandeshkhali has been on the boil since the first week of February after allegations of sexual assault on women, and land grab, against Trinamool Congress leaders came to the fore. Two local Trinamool leaders, Shiboprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, against whom charges of sexual assault have been made, have been arrested by the police. Sheikh Shahajahan, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind the crimes, however, remains on the run more than 50 days after his supporters assaulted Enforcement Directorate officials on January 5.
