LoP in West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari addresses a gathering at the Kanmari Bharat Sevashram ground, in North 24 Parganas on June 8, 2025, during the tribute-paying ceremony of BJP supporters Pradip Mandal, Debdas Mandal and Sukanta Mandal, who lost their lives on June 8, 2019, in Sandeshkhali.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party will bring the perpetrators involved in the violence and sexual assault at Sandeshkhali, including former Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, to justice within days of the party coming to power. The Assembly election is due in the State in 2026.
Addressing a public gathering at Sandeshkhali, Mr. Adhikari said that the regime of Mr. Shahjahan had ended and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice soon after the BJP came to power. The BJP leader promised the gathering that he will ensure that “Sheikh Shahjahan is hanged” after the party assumes power.
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Mr. Shahjahan, once an influential Trinamool leader from Sandeshkhali block in North 24 Parganas district, faced allegations of land grab and sexual assault by several women of the region, and was arrested by the West Bengal Police in February 2024. He had remained behind bars since then.
The women of the region had rallied against the alleged excesses of the local Trinamool leaders and the issue had become a major poll plank for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. While the BJP bagged the most votes in the Sandeshkhali Assembly seat, the party lost the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, under which the Sandeshkhali seat falls, to the Trinamool.
On Sunday, hours after the BJP leader’s rally, a team of officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited Sandeshkhali and recorded a statement from a woman who had made allegations against Mr. Shahjahan.
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The Trinamool leadership took a swipe at the developments and said Mr. Adhikari has set the ground so that the investigating agencies could work accordingly.
Speaking at the public rally in Sandeshkhali, Mr. Adhikari alleged that “Hindu BJP Karyakartas Pradip Mandal, Debdas Mandal and Sukanta Mandal” were killed on June 6, 2019 in Sandeshkhali by “Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his gang”.
Mr. Adhikari said that the three were killed in Sandeshkhali for being “Hindus”, similar to the murder of the father-son duo Hargobinda Das and Gobinda Das during the Murshidabad riots of April 2025.
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“I went to Dhulian and Samserganj after a court order. Their family said they voted for the Left parties but the perpetrators didn’t kill them because they were leftist. They were killed because they were Hindus,” the BJP leader said. The West Bengal Police had earlier this week filed a chargesheet in the double murder against 13 persons.
Mr. Adhikari also once again called for unity among Hindu voters and said that irrespective of caste and other differences, “Hindus have to unite for the 2026 Assembly election in West Bengal” to defeat the Trinamool Congress.
Published – June 09, 2025 12:09 am IST