AN NHRC team visited trouble-torn Sandeshkhali for the second consecutive day on Saturday to investigate into allegations of land-grabbing by some TMC leaders. A CPI(M) delegation led by Minakshi Mukhopadhyay also visited the strife-hit region in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal even as an uneasy calm prevailed with police patrolling the area. Mukhopadhyay, along with party leader Palash Das, visited various households and spoke to the locals. ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar also made a visit to the area. Meanwhile, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari likened the situation in Sandeshkhali to Nandigram, where a movement against “forcible” land acquisition by the then Left Front government in 2007-08 catapulted the TMC to power in 2011. “The situation in Sandeshkhali is like Nandigram... People have brought serious allegations of land-grabbing, vote-looting, sexual harassment and murder of democracy in the area,” he told reporters in Kolkata.

 

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC are still in force in certain parts of Sandeshkhali. The region has been rocked by protests over alleged land-grabbing and sexual harassment of women by local TMC leaders, including Sheikh Shajahan and his brother Sirajuddin Sheikh. Trouble started brewing in the area when a team of ED officials that conducted a raid on Shajahan’s house on January 5 was attacked by a mob allegedly affiliated to the local TMC leadership. The area also saw visits by members of the National Human Rights Commission, national ST and SC commissions and the National Commission for Women. The Director General of Police also visited the area twice in an effort to instill confidence among the villagers.