Police on Monday night arrested Shridam Hawli, 54, the Trinamool Congress Sandeshkhali block committee vice-president and a close aide of the party's now-jailed strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, amid renewed political scrutiny over law and order and the legacy of violence in the Sundarbans hub.
Hawli, who had allegedly evaded arrest for years despite facing multiple criminal charges during the Trinamool regime, was picked up from his home in connection with several pending cases of rioting, assault, attempted murder, inflicting torture on women and obstructing government work.
Sandeshkhali had emerged as one of Bengal’s most volatile political flashpoints ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, with allegations of land grabbing, intimidation of women and political terror dominating public discourse for months.
Among the allegations against him are illegal land occupation in 2015 and involvement in violent clashes linked to disputes over grabbed land. A criminal case was subsequently registered against him in connection with those incidents. Investigators also cited allegations of disobeying government orders and attacking police personnel during the Covid pandemic in 2020.
Despite the cases pending against him, Hawli allegedly continued to move around freely for years by leveraging his political proximity to Shahjahan. Police sources claimed that his closeness to Shahjahan had effectively shielded him from police action for long.
One of the faces of the Sandeshkhali women's movement and the BJP's Hingalganj MLA, Rekha Patra, welcomed Hawli's arrest. "Truth always triumphs over evil. I hope the new government will ensure similar action against several such Trinamool leaders who deserve strong legal action," Patra said.
More arrests
Trinamool leader Narayan Kar, the deputy chief of a local panchayat samiti from Swarupnagar, North 24-Parganas, was arrested on Tuesday for his alleged role in the 2021 post-poll violence. Habra police on Tuesday arrested Tarak Dey, deemed a close aide of senior Trinamool Congress leader and former food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick, on charges of extortion following a complaint lodged by an e-rickshaw operator. Dey, who was often seen accompanying Mallick during election campaigns and organisational programmes, was produced before the Barasat court on Tuesday and remanded to police custody.
