Police make first arrest in mysterious death of Sandeshkhali witness’s son; family alleges faulty probe
Kolkata, Dec 13 ( LatestNewsX ) — Police detained a suspect over the baffling death of Satyajit Ghosh, the younger son of Bhola Ghosh. Bhola is a key witness in a criminal case against suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, who is being sued in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal.
The man caught was identified as Ruhul Kuddus Sheikh. Basirhat police apprehended him early Saturday morning and he is scheduled to appear before a district court in North 24 Parganas that afternoon. A senior police official said the public prosecutor will request that he remain in police custody.
Interestingly, Ruhul did not appear in the list of eight people named in the written complaint filed earlier this week by Bhola Ghosh at the Nazat police station, which falls under the Basirhat district jurisdiction. In that complaint, Bhola alleged that a group of eight had conspired to stage a road accident, targeting him as a main witness against Shahjahan, who locals once described as the “terror of Sandeshkhali.”
Satyajit Ghosh was killed on Wednesday when a truck crashed into the vehicle carrying him and his father Bhola as they headed to the district court to record Bhola’s statement against Shahjahan. Bhola escaped with serious injuries, and the vehicle’s driver, Shahnur Molla, also lost his life.
Bhola has insisted that the truck incident was aimed at him, not his son. “I was the target because I am one of the main witnesses against Shahjahan,” he said.
After Ruhul’s arrest, the Ghosh family claimed that the Basirhat police were not conducting a thorough investigation. They argued that all eight individuals listed in the complaint were close associates of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The first two names in the complaint are Sheikh Shahjahan himself and his wife, Taslima Bibi.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation has submitted details of roughly 3,000 individual complaints against Shahjahan to the Calcutta High Court. Sources say most of these complaints stem from an attack on Enforcement Directorate officials and Central Armed Police Force personnel outside Shahjahan’s home in Sandeshkhali last year, following an attempted raid linked to a probe into a multi‑crore public distribution system scam in the state.
Additional allegations against Shahjahan involve land grabbing in Sandeshkhali, illegal conversion of agricultural land into pisciculture farms by flooding fields with saline water, and the sexual exploitation of local women.
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