The uproar still continues in Sandeshkhali block of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
People’s anger against TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh is at its peak. Local citizens allege that Shahjahan Sheikh has been involved in forcibly occupying land, extorting money and sexually harassing women.
The extent of his excesses has now come to light.
There has been a long queue of local people outside the Block Development Officer (BDO) office of Sandeshkhali for the last six days, who have come to lodge a complaint against the excesses of the TMC leader. More than 700 complaints have been filed so far in the last six days.
Most of these are related to land grabbing and sexual harassment of women. Shahjahan, who has the image of Robinhood in the area, is also being accused of extortion.
Coming under pressure from the main opposition party BJP, the state government had started the process of people registering any of their complaints with the BDO six days ago.
Since then, more than 700 applications have been received. Acting on these complaints, the authorities have also started returning the forcibly occupied lands. According to the Indian Express report, the TMC leader had grabbed the land of many villagers and converted it into a pit and started fish farming there.
According to officials in Sandeshkhali, now after the return of the land, the villagers are asking how the fields which have become salt water ponds can be converted into agricultural land again. Arun Kumar Samant, block development officer of Sandeshkhali-II block, told Express, “We have received more than 700 complaints in the last six days. Of these, more than 150 complaints are related to land grabbing only, while 70 complaints are related to extortion and extortion. “We have started the process of identifying the real owners and returning the land to them.”
Apart from these complaints of the villagers, the police is registering a case on the complaints of those women who are accusing Sheikh of sexual harassment.
Earlier this month, several women had alleged that TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan’s aide Sibha Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sarkar had been sexually harassing them for years under the pretext of late-night meetings.
Based on the complaints of the women, both of them have been arrested, while Shahjahan is still absconding. ED has so far issued four summons against him.