Targeted attack: BJP on road accident involving witness in Sandeshkhali case in WB

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) The BJP alleged on Thursday that it was not a road accident but a "targeted attack", orchestrated by now-jailed TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan, that injured a prime witness in a case against him and killed his son in West Bengal.

Alleging that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the state is providing protection to Shahjahan, the saffron party demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

It also demanded that all the witnesses in the case be immediately provided with security by central forces under the Supreme Court's supervision.

There was no immediate reaction from the TMC to the allegations levelled against it by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Bholanath Ghosh, one of the prime witnesses in a case involving an attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Sandeshkhali and connected CBI cases that have implicated Shahjahan, was injured when a truck collided with his car in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Wednesday, according to police.

Ghosh's younger son, Satyajit (32), and the driver of his car, Sahanur Molla (27), were killed in the accident that took place on the Basanti highway, near the Boyramari petrol pump, under the Nazat police station limits in Basirhat, police said.

Addressing a press conference at the party's headquarters here, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, "It was not an accident, it was a well-thought-out, targeted attack carried out at the behest of Sheikh Shahjahan." Poonawalla said Shahjahan, currently lodged in a jail, is an accused in 40 criminal cases, including the Sandeshkhali one.

"Such a criminal is being given protection by the West Bengal government to such an extent that he, while sitting inside a jail, orchestrated an attack on a witness who was on his way to court to testify in the case," the BJP leader said.

"Bholanath Ghosh has said Shahjahan is behind this and that efforts are being made to silence him, so that he cannot testify in any proceedings," he added.

Poonawalla demanded Banerjee's immediate resignation from the chief minister's post, accepting responsibility for the incident.

The incident reveals that the law-and-order situation in West Bengal has completely collapsed under the TMC government, he claimed.

"A detailed probe must be conducted under the Supreme Court's supervision to determine what economic, legal and political relationship Sheikh Shahjahan still has with the TMC," the BJP spokesperson said. PTI PK RC