The Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police on Saturday recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition and arrested another person from Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district in connection with Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, who masterminded an attack on Enforcement Directorate officials in January 2024.
Police said the raids are still underway.
Shahjahan was arrested in February 2024 and has been in detention since then.
The police had initially arrested three men, allegedly close to Shah Jahan, and led them to the first point in Sarberia, where five firearms were recovered from an abandoned house.
Acting on their information, police then raided another location in a village in Manipur, where 13 firearms and ammunition were recovered from underneath a fish farm. Another person was arrested from there.
A senior police officer, who requested anonymity, said: “Sheikh Shahjahan was running this network. They bought weapons and used them in various crimes. The investigation is ongoing.”
He added: “Police found 10 long firearms and eight small weapons in addition to 56 live rounds. In total, we arrested four people. Two people were detained for questioning. The raids are still ongoing. Our teams are on the ground. We are obtaining more information.”
In February 2024, protests broke out in Sandeshkhali, with villagers, mostly women, demanding the arrest of Shah Jahan and his aides over allegations of land grabbing and sexual abuse of women. The Calcutta High Court later ordered a CBI investigation, and the TMC leader was arrested along with his aides Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
