In Jahangir ‘Pushpa’ Khan’s Falta fall, his wife’s arrest is a surprising blow

Little symbolises the change in fortunes of Trinamool Congress strongman Jahangir Khan, since the West Bengal Assembly election results, as the arrest of his wife Sarika Bibi.

In Falta where the couple live, the neighbours say 37-year-old Sarika, who has studied till middle school, was rarely seen in public, despite Khan’s hold in the area. Now, Sarika is under arrest, for allegedly leading a mob that stormed the Falta Police Station on June 17 to try and free Khan.

Among the more than 25 people arrested in the case, Sarika was booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, rioting, promoting enmity, and assault on public servants, apart from under the Arms Act and Explosives Act.

Police said close to 400 supporters of Khan had tried to make their way into the police station, pushing back against the forces, including Central, deployed to stop them. They said the investigation was trying to determine how so many people had gathered at the spot, who was behind the assembly, and if the mob had been paid for the protest.

The Khan home in Fatla, which also housed the local TMC office, was once a hub of political activity in West Bengal. Falta falls in the Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency of the united TMC’s No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee, and Khan was seen as his right-hand man. During the Assembly elections, he made national headlines when he took on a police officer deployed for the polls, describing himself as “Pushpa”, the character from the hit film by the same name who didn’t bow before anyone.

The under-construction building, towering above the houses next door, is now deserted, a pink-and-white checked cloth hanging on a line the only spot of colour against grey, unpainted walls. The windows are unfinished, with just the frames and grilles fixed.

Shutters are down at the office, and TMC flags torn. A black Mahindra Scorpio stands unused, its windows and windscreens smashed, as a group of CRPF men keep a lazy watch in the sultry heat.

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Neighbours are reluctant to talk to outsiders, only venturing after much persuasion that Khan and Sarika have not been to the house since he suddenly dropped out of the repoll for the Falta Assembly seat, held on May 21. It was the only Assembly constituency to see a re-election after the polls, and Khan’s move left the TMC without a candidate and gave the BJP an easy win.

Neighbours say the couple left in the dead of the night, without a trace. They have two school-going children, who stay in a hostel in North Bengal.

On June 9, Khan resurfaced in Falta. He made an appearance twice, both times in police custody, with officials making him parade the neighbourhood with his hands folded in an apology.

Party insiders say it was Khan’s “humiliation” that triggered Sarika to join the protests against his arrest on June 17. Before that, Sarika moved the Calcutta High Court over police parading her husband in half-paints, with a rope tied around him, calling it a severe violation of his human rights and his dignity.

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Neighbours say that even if Sarika did join the mob at the police station on June 17, it is hard for them to believe she led it.

Police filed a case on the incident at the police station and, on June 21, Sarika was tracked to an acquaintance’s house in Julpia area of Bishnupur, and arrested. She is in police custody.

Says Nasreen Bibi: “She hardly stepped outside the house before. As their new house was being built, they had moved into a small one, but we never even heard her voice.”

Another neighbour, who runs a shop, says: “She was not a political person, neither did we ever see her much. She would not even attend her husband’s political meetings or campaign for him.”

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Nadeem Mulla, among the few willing to come on record, calls the couple “very good” people. “They did a lot of development of this place. They have just been made political scapegoats.”

Scoffing at this, local BJP leader Nilotpal Haldar says Khan dominated Falta by fear and accuses him of “atrocities”. “My own gold shop was looted in 2021, my daughter stopped going to school out of fear. People in Bengal voted to end such atrocities.”

Last week, acting on Sarika’s petition, the Calcutta High Court said the parading of Khan was a potential human rights violation, and ordered the state police to ensure his rights were protected. The court also directed police to submit a report on whether any new FIRs had been registered against Khan within seven days.

The next hearing in the case is on Wednesday.