Kolkata, Feb 18: The people, especially the women of Sandeshkhali, raised ‘thief-thief’ and ‘rapist-rapist’ slogans as arrested Trinamool Congress leader Shibu Hazra, who had been booked under charges of rape and attempt to murder, was brought to a district court on Sunday. As the police brought Hazra within the premises of Basirhat Sub-division Court on Sunday afternoon, a large number of people assembled there, mostly from Sandeshkhali, expressed their fury by shouting slogans and condemning the arrested accused. Meanwhile, there was a celebration mood since morning over Hazra’s arrest in Sandeshkhali, where the local women were seen exchanging sweets with each other. At the same time, they claimed that only half of the path had been crossed following the arrest of Hazra. According to them, peace at Sandeshkhali will be actually restored after Hazra’s political mentor and absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, the mastermind behind the January-5 attack on ED and CAPF personnel, is arrested.
“Today we are celebrating with sweets. The day Shahjahan will be arrested, there will be a full-fledged picnic,” a local woman was heard saying.
Shahjaahan is absconding after the incident. However, from the underground, he had been approaching different courts through his counsel for anticipatory bail. ED, on its part too has moved the court seeking to be a party in the case of Shahjahan seeking anticipatory bail.
Victim directly approaches judge
The opposition parties in West Bengal have started questioning the credibility of the state police after a victim in Sandeshkhali recorded her statement before the judicial magistrate instead of the cops. It was on the basis of her statement that local Trinamool Congress leader Shibu Hazra was arrested on Saturday.
The opposition parties have claimed that the development is a concrete example of the kind of reliability the state police have in the eyes of common people in West Bengal.
Senior state BJP leader and the former national secretary of the party, Rahul Sinha said the protesting women in Sandeshkhali have claimed that that whenever they used to go to the police with complaints against the local Trinamool Congress leaders, the cops would advise them to go to the accused persons only for remission.
“The police never accepted FIRs. Now pushed to the walls the victim woman was forced to give the secret confession to the judicial magistrate,” Sinha said.
CPI(M) central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty pointed out that when someone decides to give a secret confession to anyone who is in the system of justice but not the police, it becomes clear that the common people have lost faith in the police. (IANS)