Lookout Notice Against TMC Leader Day After Assault On ED Officers In Bengal

The lookout notice from the ED comes amid apprehensions that he might flee the country following the incident.

ED Team Mob Attack: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday issued a lookout notice against Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh a day after a mob assaulted ED officers during a raid at his residence, news agency PTI reported, citing an official.

According to PTI, the move from the probe agency comes amid apprehensions that he might flee the country following the incident on Friday in which three officers of the central agency sustained injuries and several vehicles were damaged by a mob at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, which is close to the Bangladesh border.

"We have issued a lookout notice for the TMC leader and necessary instructions have been sent to the Airports Authority of India," the ED officer told PTI. Shahjahan Sheikh is considered a close aide of state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick, who was arrested last year in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.

The ED officer stated that ED has already alerted the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the BSF. He also claimed that the mobile tower location of the TMC leader showed that he was inside his Sandeshkhali home on Friday when the probe agency team reached there.

"Since then, his mobile phone has been switched off and he is not there in Sandeshkhali. Going by some initial probe, it seems that he may be trying to cross the border to Bangladesh," the officer said, as quoted by PTI.

Meanwhile, the health condition of three ED officers, who were injured in the mob attacks has improved and they are now stable, an official of the hospital where they are undergoing treatment said on Saturday, PTI reported. As per the doctors, two officers who sustained injuries were fit for discharge.

A final round of checking on the other ED officer, who had suffered a head injury, would be conducted, and a decision on whether to discharge him on Sunday or a day after would be taken after that, the official said, as reported by PTI.

"All the three officers admitted here are stable. Two, who had minor injuries, are likely to be discharged today. The other ED officer who had a head injury is admitted to the HDU and is also doing fine. We may discharge him tomorrow or a day after," the hospital official told PTI.