Shameful if even 1% of Sandeshkhali claims true, says Calcutta HC

SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY on the alleged sexual harassment of women in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali by men linked to suspended Trinamool Congress strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, the Calcutta High Court Thursday said even if 1% of the allegations are true, it is “absolutely shameful” and claims of the state being safe for women fall apart.

Hearing public interest litigations filed in connection with the case, including some on behalf of the alleged victims, the bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said, “The entire district administration and ruling dispensation must owe a moral responsibility. Even if 1% (of the affidavit) is true, it is absolutely shameful. And West Bengal says it is safest for women? If one affidavit is proved to be right all of this falls.”

The division bench of Chief Justice Sivajyanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharya, which heard a total of five PILS filed in connection with the incident on Thursday, reserved its verdict.

Priyanka Tibrewal, advocate for some of the alleged victims, demanded in the court that action be taken against complicit officials. Tibrewal prayed for transfer of investigation to the CBI and placed before the division bench a number of complaints by the alleged victims. She claimed that the voluminous files contained more than 100 complaints by women alleging sexual assault, apart from several complaints of land grabbing and other instances of violence and destruction of property.

Tibrewal also prayed for the constitution of a committee to look into the complaints by the court and payment of compensation to the victims.

The division bench had on March 7 granted permission to Tibrewal, who claimed to represent the victims, to file an application/supplementary affidavit bringing on record whatever the alleged victims wish to place before this court. The lawyer for Shahjahan, on the other hand, said, “I have many villagers with me who can file affidavits in the court and say that outsiders are involved in this incident.”

The Chief Justice retorted, “If you question Shahjahan and the villagers at the same time, it must be assumed that these villagers have been groomed. First look at the charges against you, then speak. Why did you escape by avoiding the law for 40-45 days?”

Meanwhile, opposing prayers for transfer of the Sandeshkhali investigation, state Advocate General Kishore Dutta claimed before a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam that central agencies have lost the trust placed on them.

The state's Advocate General submitted that if required, a PIL can be instituted at the instance of the court on how many CBI investigations were ordered by it in the last 10 years, and what are the results of those and what is the fate of the trials.

He wondered about the conviction rate of central probe agencies like the CBI or the Enforcement Directorate.

Accusing the state of non-cooperation, the central government's Deputy Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi, representing the ED in this matter, asked how the central agencies could take forward the investigations in such a situation.

He submitted that the high court has ordered investigations by central agencies in several cases in the state, including the violence following the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, as the local police have been found wanting.

Shahjahan first made headlines on January 5, when an ED team that went to conduct searches at his residence in Sandeshkhali came under attack from his supporters. He then went under the radar for a month. On January 8, several women residents of Sandeshkhali took to the streets demanding his arrest and alleging that his aides and henchmen had been sexually harassing women for years.

As the pressure mounted on the TMC government, Shahjahan was arrested on February 29.