There was yet another judicial reverse suffered by the Mamata Banerjee Government with the Supreme Court on Monday asking the State counsel why the administration should want to shield an accused before dismissing the State plea to scrap the ongoing probe into the Sandeshkhali incident conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The State Government had approached the Apex Court to get the CBI investigation ordered earlier by the Calcutta High Court quashed.

"Why should the State be interested in protecting someone?" the Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan wondered before dismissing the State plea.

The Calcutta High Court had on April 10 ordered a CBI investigation into the incidents of Sandeshkhali where villagers complained en masse of large-scale land grab and sexual exploitation of women allegedly at the behest of Trinamool Congress strongmen Sheikh Shahjahan, Uttam Sardar and others. All were presently in jail.

Moving the Apex Court, the State Government had earlier said the High Court order directing CBI investigation into the case had demoralised the police administration. It also said it was the State police which had arrested Shahjahan before handing it over to the CBI.

However the opposite side contended that the State had not only tried to stall CBI investigation but also it had handed arrested the main accused after several weeks of the incident apparently because he was a powerful TMC leader.

The CBI has been investigating three separate cases with Sandeshkhali appearing in all of them. While the agency is investigating the case of multi-crore public distribution system scam that has seen former State Minister and powerful TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick going to jail.

It is also dealing with the alleged attack by the men of Shahjahan on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials who went to the reverine island of Sandeshkhali on January 5 to investigate his connection with the ration scam.

The CBI started investigating the third case around Sandeshkhali when the Calcutta High Court directed it to take over the complaints of land grab and sexual assault on women in the North 24 Parganas village surrounded backwaters and Sunderbans.

The High Court had directed a court-monitored CBI investigation wherein it has asked the Agency to file comprehensive reports on the alleged land grab whence the occupied agricultural lands had been converted into water bodies for pisci-culture and the cases of crimes against women.

Apart from hitting the national headlines the Sandeshkhali incident became a major electoral issue before the general elections though it is another matter that none of the political opposition including the Left and the BJP could extract any political dividend out of it with the TMC not only winning Basirhat parliamentary seat where Sandeshkhali is an Assembly segment but also improving its overall tally from 22 to 29 whereas the BJP came down from 18 seats to 12 seats whereas the Left could win none. The Congress which had won 2 seats in 2019 managed to win only one seat.