Tension started brewing in Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, after the ED went to the area to search the premises of local Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shajahan in connection with an alleged ration scam, on January 5. He is still at large.

Women protestors in Sandeshkhali then alleged that Shajahan and his “gang” had captured swathes of land by force, besides sexually harassing them. triggered a fierce political blame game with senior leaders of the Congress, which is part of the anti-BJP opposition bloc INDIA along with TMC at the national level, joining others to criticise the Mamata Banerjee government over the issue.

Shajahan’s supporters also took to the streets, further adding to the tension following which prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC were clamped in 19 pockets across seven villages in Sandeshkhali block-II.

Earlier, SP Basirhat Police District HM Rehman said that he would look into the allegation of a team of the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, which visited Sandeshkhali earlier in the day, that miscreants snatched a toddler from his mother and threw him on the ground in front of the police. Earlier, representatives of the National Commission for Women and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes also visited the area.

Senior leaders of the BJP and the Congress were stopped by police on Friday from visiting the trouble-torn Sandeshkhali, escalating the political tensions in the state as the leaders accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of fostering a “lawless situation” and attempting to “communalise” the issue.