PMLA court sends TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh to 14 days’ judicial remand in Enforcement Directorate case

Kolkata, April 15

A special PMLA court here on Monday remanded suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shajahan Sheikh to 14 days’ judicial custody in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case for alleged money laundering in the garb of pisciculture business.

Sheikh was arrested by the ED on March 30 in connection with a case of mob assault on the agency’s officials when they went to search his premises in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas on January 5 in relation to another money laundering case.

Sheikh, who spent the last couple of weeks in ED custody on a court order, was sent to judicial remand for 14 days by special judge Prasanta Mukhopadhyay, PMLA court at Bichar Bhavan here.

ED counsel Abhijit Bhadra had prayed for Sheikh’s judicial custody.

The ED has alleged in this case that Sheikh indulged in money laundering by siphoning off money derived from land grabbing from hapless villagers in the garb of pisciculture business.

A team of ED officials were assaulted by a mob of nearly 1,000 people on January 5 when they went to search the premises of Sheikh at Sarberia village in Sandeshkhali in connection with a ration distribution scam case.

Following an order of the Calcutta High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the assault case, in which Sheikh has been accused of orchestrating the mob attack on the ED officials to prevent them from raiding his premises.