ANI photo (representational).
Kolkata: In the case of land-grabbing from Villagers of Sandeshkhali of West Bengal, the state police have arrested Trinamool Congress leader Ajit Maity, PTI reported.
According to police, Maity was arrested on Sunday evening from the house of a civic volunteer. He had locked himself there for more than four hours after the villagers chased him. He is considered a close aid of TMC local leader Shahjahan Sheikh, who is absconding.
"We have arrested him after getting complaints from villagers regarding land grabbing. We will produce him in the court later in the day," the police officer told PTI.
The police lodged an FIR only after 70 complaints were received against Shiekh. The complaints accused Sheikh of active involvement in the forcible acquisition of villagers' land and torturing of local women.
A couple of days ago, angry villagers attacked Maity over his alleged ties with Sheikh.
The police action comes after a TMC delegation visited the restive Sandeshkhali for the second consecutive day on Sunday and heard the grievances of villagers who have been protesting against alleged atrocities by local leaders of the ruling party.
The island Sandeshkhali is located on the borders of the Sunderbans, about 100 kilometres from Kolkata. Here, protests against absconding Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters were raging for more than a month.
In another, Lok Sabha MP from Basirhat constituency, where Sandeshkhali is located, Nussrat Jahan, spoke on Sunday, finally breaking her silence in Sandeshkhali protests and related sexual harassment, extortion and grabbing allegations. Jahan said that she served her people genuinely, following party guidelines. She assured that the state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking all the necessary measures to ensure peace in the Sandeshkhali island. A news report about her, which she posted on X, quoted the residents of Sandeshkhali that MP Jahan did not visit the island after she was elected and she was only there during the election campaign ahead of the 2019 general elections. According to the islanders, the vehicle she used to tour the island belonged to Sheikh Shajahan, against who the protests are all about.