Sandeshkhali’s Shahjahan bought arms in Bengal on licences from Nagaland, says police

Guwahati: Suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas, Sheikh Shahjahan, bought three firearms from an authorized gun dealer in Kolkata between 2016 and 2019.

All the licences against these weapons were issued in Nagaland, police officers said after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from the home of another TMC leader’s relative in Sandeshkhali on Friday.

According to police records, after procuring the licences from Nagaland, Shahjahan also bought a .32 bore Mauser pistol made in Germany, a .32 bore Smith and Wesson revolver made in the US and a 30.06 bore rifle made by the Indian Ordnance Factory in Ishapore in West Bengal.

According to reports, the rise of 45-year-old Shahjahan has been meteoric.

He joined the party in 2013, two years after the Mamata Banerjee-led party came to power in the state ousting the Left Front government.

It is learnt that Abu Taleb Sheikh, owner of the house where the CBI made the seizures, could not be traced.

Local sources have said that Shahjahan used to work as a driver and sometimes a helper of trekkers, collecting fares from passengers in Sandeshkhai and Sarberia in his early days.

He grew up under the shadow of his maternal uncle Moslem Sheikh, who was a Panchayat-level CPI (M) leader.