The BJP on Monday attacked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the party's claim that the absconding party leader Shahjahan Sheikh, who is accused of sexual assault and land grab in Sandeshkhali, will be arrested in seven days.


BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that TMC leader Kunal Ghosh's assertion that Sheikh will be arrested in seven days shows that he was never on the run and has been given state-sponsored protection in West Bengal. 


Sheikh, a TMC strongman, has been accused of sexual atrocities and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal. 


"It is a testimony that Sheikh has always been in the sight of the Trinamool Congress leaders," BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told reporters.


"The TMC leader has admitted that the accused has been given a state-sponsored protection," the BJP leader alleged. 


The BJP spokesperson alleged that the TMC government in West Bengal suffers from dictatorial and Talibani mindset. This state government is all about bombs, blasts and saving rapists, and not 'maa, maati and manush' as claimed by the TMC, he alleged. 


Poonawalla also welcomed the Calcutta High Court's decision on the matter. The Calcutta High Court clarified that there is no stay on Sheikh's arrest, a point often made by the TMC leaders amid criticism of the state police for not arresting him so far. 




Meanwhile, Congress' Bengal chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "The women of West Bengal are protesting to protect their honour in Sandeshkhali. TMC government should be ashamed of this."

 

TMC Says Shahjahan Sheikh To Be Arrested Soon

 

Trinamool Congress leaders have said the West Bengal government was acting against Sandeshkhali accused Shajahan Sheikh and he would be arrested very soon.

 

TMC leader Sagarika Ghose accused the BJP of politicising the issue and trying to obstruct the work of a law-abiding government.

Newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Ghose also lashed out at the National Commission of Women and accused it of acting at the behest of the Union government by demanding that the President's rule be imposed in West Bengal, while it never made such a demand in the case of Manipur.

 

The TMC has been very clear, now that the court has clarified there is no bar on arresting the main accused Shajahan Sheikh, police and government will act and his arrest will happen very soon, Ghose said, according to PTI.

 

Earlier on Sunday, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee asserted his party was not protecting its absconding leader Shajahan Sheikh, accused of sexual abuse and land grab by Sandeshkhali villagers.

While the fact-finding panel led by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy was stopped by police citing Section 144 CrPC, a TMC delegation visited the area for the second consecutive day on Sunday and heard grievances of villagers who have been protesting against alleged atrocities by local TMC leaders.


Banerjee claimed that a few outsiders were fomenting trouble and creating disturbances in the region ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.


"The TMC is not shielding Shajahan Sheikh... We have a zero-tolerance policy against anyone committing any crime," he said.