Absconding Shah of Sarberia: How Sheikh Shahjahan became a law unto himself in Sandeshkhali

Several villagers who spoke to this correspondent, on the condition of anonymity, said it didn’t take Shahjahan long to rise up the Trinamul ranks. He became deputy chief of the gram panchayat after the 2018 rural elections, and won a seat in the North 24-Parganas zilla parishad in 2023

Sheikh Shahjahan.: File picture

Snehamoy Chakraborty, TT, Calcutta, 24.02.24 :  Minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury is unlikely to forget how Sheikh Shahjahan’s men attacked his convoy when he visited the Trinamul strongman’s home turf of Sarberia in Sandeshkhali with relief material after Cyclone Yaas mauled swathes of coastal Bengal in May 2021.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader and mass education and library minister had come with food and clothes to help 400-odd families in the Sarberia-Agarhati gram panchayat. But Shahjahan, the upa pradhan, would not let him enter.

“Around 200 people armed with bamboo sticks stopped the convoy on Basanti Highway and asked the minister to leave the place,” a policeman who was posted in the area at the time told The Telegraph.

“The local people told him it was ‘Shahjahan’s area’ and no one could distribute any relief material. As the minister argued with them, the mob went on the rampage, vandalising the vehicles in the convoy and looting the relief material. They pushed and shoved Siddiqullah Saheb and even threatened to kill him.”

The policeman added: “Finally, a team from the Nazat police station rescued him and escorted him back to Calcutta. The minister informed the police and the party higher-ups but nothing happened to Shahjahan.”

When this newspaper on Friday asked Chowdhury whether he remembered the “hamla” (attack), he said “yes” but added that he didn’t want any fresh controversy. An aide to Chowdhury, who didn’t want to be named, told this correspondent: “Shahjahan’s men threatened to kill him (the minister) in front of the police. We can only say that no one is above the law, and those behind the atrocities in Sandeshkhali will be punished.”

The incident reflects how Shahjahan, son of a marginal farmer who began his political career as a CPM activist in 2000, became a law unto himself in large parts of the Sandeshkhali Assembly segment.

Shajahan’s brazen domination of Sandeshkhali came out in the open on January 5, when his people attacked an Enforcement Directorate team that had come to raid his home in connection with the PDS irregularities that have led to the arrest of his biggest backer, minister Jyotipriya Mallick.

“He could do anything, even stop a minister and one of the tallest Muslim leaders in the state. Shajahan’s public demonstration of his ability to humiliate Siddiqullah Saheb helped him consolidate his position locally,” a state government official who had formerly been posted in the area said.

Shahjahan, 48, began his career as one of the leaders of a CPM-backed union of local auto-rickshaw operators in early 2000. He cut his teeth as a political activist under Muslem Sheikh, the then CPM chief of the Sarberia-Agarhati gram panchayat.

“He has a very humble family background. He used to wash cars in Sarberia and hang around with the auto-rickshaw union leaders.... In CPM parlance, he was only a member of the ‘party cadre’, without any portfolio,” a local villager said.

He said Shahjahan had been among the first of the local “comrades” to switch to the Trinamul Congress after the change of guard in Bengal in 2011.

Several villagers who spoke to this correspondent, on the condition of anonymity, said it didn’t take Shahjahan long to rise up the Trinamul ranks. He became deputy chief of the gram panchayat after the 2018 rural elections, and won a seat in the North 24-Parganas zilla parishad in 2023.

Sheikh Shahjahan Market in Sarberia.: Biswarup Dutta

“The most striking thing about him is his business acumen. He realised early that pisciculture was a money-spinner, and that he therefore needed water bodies,” said a middle-aged man who has known Shahjahan’s family for decades.

He said Shahjahan began his pisciculture business around 2013-14 by taking over a few farmers’ land on lease and converting them into bheris under legal agreements.

“His business model changed around 2018, when he became deputy chief of the gram panchayat. He began forcing farmers to part with their land by signing lease agreements while not paying them the agreed sum,” a villager said.

Such large-scale land-grab would hardly have been possible without using force in this rural belt because of the villagers’ attachment to their ancestral land and the lack of employment opportunities beyond agriculture.

“He realised he could carry on with his land-grab project only by convincing people that he was above the law, so that complaints were not lodged against him,” a source in the administration, who has seen fertile farmland turned systematically into bheris, said.

The PWD bungalow near the Sandeshkhali ferry ghat where Uttam Kumar had stayed during the shooting of Amanush.: Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Local people narrated several incidents that showcased Shahjahan’s unbridled power.

“In June 2019, the then Sandeshkhali-II block development officer, Kaushik Bhattacharya, was beaten up in his office by goons backed by Shahjahan and his aide Shib Prasad Hazra,” a state government official said.

“The BDO had declined to clear a fabricated bill of around Rs 1 crore relating to a government project. But nothing happened to Shahjahan as he was close to minister Mallik, who is now in jail for his alleged involvement in the PDS (public distribution system) scam.”

Multiple sources in the district administration said that BDO Bhattacharya, who is now posted in Malda, had been the first to expose how Shahjahan was running a parallel administration in the area. Bhattacharya’s whistle-blowing, however, had little impact, and he was transferred to a north Bengal district after the incident.

Contacted by this correspondent on Friday afternoon, Bhattacharya said: “I don’t have any comments to offer.”

A former colleague of Bhattacharya narrated how the BDO — who had to be hospitalised after the assault — was harassed after the incident because he was firm on lodging a police complaint.

“His attempt to lodge a complaint initially drew a blank as Mallick, the then food and supplies minister, was against it. Everyone knew that Shahjahan was the minister’s man,” a senior police officer said.

Finally, a complaint was lodged following an intervention from the then district magistrate, Antara Acharya. Shahjahan and his men had to return to the treasury a large sum they had been accused of embezzling. “But Shahjahan was spared any legal action,” the source said.

An official recalled another incident from 2019, when Shahjahan and his henchmen allegedly “seized” a state transport bus following a dispute over fares.

“The transport department intervened, recovering the bus and rescuing the employees. But Shahjan did not face any consequences,” the police officer said.

He said that such was Shahjahan’s clout that some of his men — accused of involvement in an incident in 2021 in which a civic volunteer was killed and an assistant sub-inspector of police injured — remained at large for months as he offered them shelter.

“Finally, Shahjahan got these people to surrender before the police,” he said.

A state government official said: “Now, when I hear people saying that the local police station used to tell villagers to lodge complaints with Shahjahan if they had any grievances, I remember how police teams from other parts of Bengal would come in search of a criminal and would be asked to get in touch with Shahjahan.”

The alleged atrocities on women, which have become a huge political issue in the state, reflected the sense of impunity among Shahjahan’s henchmen.

“Their wealth, political clout and belief that they were above the law were the reason they dared call women over to the party office at ungodly hours,” a middle-aged villager said.

That women are coming forward and lodging complaints is a healthy development in Sandeshkhali, he said.

“People here were too afraid to lodge complaints against him. I think there is still a certain degree of fear. Shahjahan may have fled but 10 to 15 of his close associates are still around,” he said.

“They may be lying low now, but there’s always the possibility of these amanush (inhuman or brutish people) targeting the complainants after the media glare starts fading.”

The expression “amanush” carries a special connotation for Sandeshkhali, where the 1975 Bengali film Amanush — starring Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore and Utpal Dutt — was shot.

Several people pointed out the PWD bungalow near the Sandeshkhali ferry ghat where Uttam Kumar had put up while the film was shot. They told this correspondent stories they had heard from their elders about the superstar’s friendly behaviour with the villagers.

“Who would have known that a real-life amanush would ruin our lives?” a woman said, gazing at the building that is now locally known as “Uttam Kumar Bungalow”.