Kolkata, Feb 26 (IANS): The crucial hearing in the anticipatory bail plea of absconding Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh, the accused mastermind behind the attack on ED and CAPF officers at Sandeshkhali on January 5, was postponed at a district court in West Bengal's Barasat due to a pen-down strike call given by the lawyers of the court on Monday.

The matter will be now heard on March 15.

This is the second lower court which has been moved by Shahjahan seeking anticipatory bail from underground through his counsel.

Earlier, he had moved a special PMLA court in Kolkata, which had rejected his plea.

Legal experts feel that following the postponement of the hearing, the situation has become even more critical for Shahjahan considering that a division bench of the Calcutta High Court made it clear on Monday that there is no stay order on his arrest and hence there are no restrictions on the state police seeking to arrest him.

On Monday itself, an FIR was registered against Shahjahan at the Sandeshkhali police station on the basis of over 70 complaints lodged against him by the villagers. The charges include harassment of women, forceful grabbing of farmland, and flooding farmland belonging to others with saline water in order to grab land at throwaway prices, among others.