Kolkata: Two individuals were taken into custody by the West Bengal Police in the district of North 24 Parganas on Friday, officials said. This is the first arrest made in a week following an attack on an ED team in Sandeshkhali.
The district's Nazat Police Station officers made the arrests. Two people have been arrested, according to state police sources: Mehboob Molla and Sukamal Sardar. The video footage of the attack on the ED and CAPF personnel was used to identify them.
Sources said that they had been arrested from a secret hideout within one of the innumerable pisciculture farms in the area. However, the principal mastermind behind the attack and the local Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, at whose residence ED sleuths attempted raid and search operations on January 5, is still absconding.
ED has already issued a lookout notice against Shahjahan. The border outposts of the Border Security Force (BSF) have also been alerted in anticipation that the absconding ruling party leader might escape to neighbouring Bangladesh, whose international border with India is very close to the place where the attack on ED sleuths took place.
The arrest of the two accused happened just a day after Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered an interim stay on any investigation by West Bengal Police against ED officials based on an FIR filed at the Nazat Police Station against those sleuths who were attacked along with CAPF personnel on January 5.
Justice Mantha while passing the order had also questioned whether the police of Nazat Police Station had conducted even a basic ground investigation before registering the FIR against the ED officials.
Meanwhile, the state BJP has described the first two arrests as mere eyewash since the principal mastermind behind the attack is still absconding. The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said the police were well aware about him and were also providing protection to the absconding leader.
With inputs from IANS