The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a second petition at the Calcutta High Court, demanding the rejection of an FIR filed by the police against officials of the central agency who were attacked along with CAPF personnel while they attempted to raid the residence of Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali, North 24 Parganas on January 5.
In the petition filed at the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, the ED counsel also appealed for a fast-track hearing of the matter.
Justice Mantha has admitted the petition and the matter will come up for hearing later in the day.
This is the second such petition filed by the ED at the High Court.
A similar plea was filed on Wednesday at the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta challenging the police FIR against the attacked ED officials.
On Thursday, the matter came up for a brief hearing at Justice Sengupta’s bench where the latter had given a verbal order directing the state police not to initiate any action against any ED official until January 15.
Sources said three FIRs have been registered at the local Nazat Police Station over the Sandeshkhali incident.
The first is on the basis of a complaint filed by the ED accusing the Shahjahan’s followers of attacking the officials.
The probe agency said that during the attack, not only three of their officers were severely injured and had to be hospitalised, but also their personal and official belongings like mobile phones, laptops and wallet were robbed.
The second FIR was based on a complaint filed by an associate of the accused Trinamool Congress leader accusing the ED of trying to forcefully break open the main entrance door of the residence without furnishing any search warrant.
The third FIR was filed sumo motu by the cops of Nazat Police Station.
In a strongly worder statement earlier, the ED had also accused West Bengal Police of diluting the seriousness of the charges on the attack of its officials by incorporating mainly the clauses related to bailable and non-scheduled offences in the first FIR filed on the basis of the complaint filed by the agency.
