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Kolkata:
Thousands of Leftists Wednesday joined the funeral procession of
an SFI activist, whose death in police custody here triggered
outrage cutting across the political divide.
Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was on the
defensive as she called the Tuesday death of Sudipto Gupta
"unfortunate" and pledged to help his distraught family.
The West Bengal Human Rights Commission ordered a probe into his
death, for which celebrated filmmaker Mrinal Sen blamed Banerjee.
Gupta, 24, a post-graduate student of Rabindra Bharati University
and a leader of the Students Federation of India, died allegedly
after policemen assaulted him in custody.
The SFI is the student wing of the Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M).
Left activists said Gupta was "mercilessly beaten" while he and
other students who had staged a protest seeking elections in
colleges were being taken in a bus to the Presidency Correctional
Home.
In the process, Gupta reportedly fell from the bus and collapsed
after crashing against a lamp post, said an SFI member.
"He was hit on his head so hard that one of his eyes popped out,"
added West Bengal SFI joint secretary Shatarup Ghosh.
Police said the death was an accident.
Chief Minister Banerjee said many activists of her Trinamool
Congress party too had died when their heads accidentally hit
electric posts while travelling on trains.
"Any death is unfortunate. I shall not speak any more on this,"
she said.
Gupta's body, wrapped in the CPI-M's red flag, was taken in a
flower-bedecked hearse from the hospital to the Netaji Nagar
College where he was general secretary of the students' council.
Grieving students and teachers offered floral tributes amid cries
of "Lal Salam!"
The body was then taken to Gupta's residence where his father
broke down.
The inconsolable 63-year-old Pranab Gupta, a widower, said his son
"used to dream of a new social order, a new dawn".
He said he would not let the death go in vain and fight for
justice.
Helped by CPI-M and SFI leaders, the grieving father wobbled
towards the vehicle, folded his hands, and then placed flowers on
the body.
Taking suo motu cognizance of the death, the West Bengal Human
Rights Commission ordered the Kolkata police commissioner to
submit a report in seven days.
The commission has also formed its own investigating team and will
examine witnesses and other evidence cause of Gupta's death.
Mrinal Sen said Mamata Banerjee was to blame for the death.
"Who is responsible? The one who rules the state, under whom the
police are, that is the chief minister is responsible for this
death," Sen said.
Even the Congress voiced dismay.
"With (Trinamool) taking over, we had thought the state will
witness change. What I see is the politics of police killing
students ... has come back," state Congress president Pradip
Bhattacharya said.
The death in Kolkata triggered protest demonstrations in Chennai,
Kerala and New Delhi.
In the national capital, over 100 students of the Jawaharlal Nehru
University staged a noisy protest outside Banga Bhawan, which
belongs to the West Bengal government.
Some students tried to scale the boundary wall but were stopped by
police.
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