Student leader Sudipto Gupta’s death sparks row in Bengal

Kolkata/New Delhi: In a major embarrassment for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, an SFI student leader was allegedly killed in police custody on Tuesday.

Eyewitnesses said Sudipto Gupta (22) was brutally thrashed by the police while he was leading a protest march in Kolkata. But the Chief Minister maintained that the student leader died when he put his head out while being taken in a police van and that his head hit a lamp post.

According to the police, 22-year-old Sudipto Gupta had sustained injuries after he fell from the bus ferrying SFI supporters, who were arrested during a protest against postponement of college elections in the state. The driver of the private bus was on Wednesday arrested for rash driving.

As the body of Sudipto Gupta was brought to the SFI party office in Kolkata in the evening, thousands of youngsters poured in to pay respect to the student leader. Left leaders including former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya arrived at the SFI office to pay homage.

However, the CPI-M had alleged that Gupta succumbed to his injuries suffered in a lathicharge by the police during the protest. Further investigation into the case is being conducted with the arrest of the bus driver, a senior police official said.

The police claimed that SFI supporters had turned violent and threw rotten tomatoes and eggs at the policemen deployed in their protest venue.

Meanwhile, an SFI leader told reporters on Wednesday that inspite of an advance notice by the student body, there was no adequate police deployment at the venue of their protest where over 6,000 students, including women supporters, had assembled. In protest against the incident, the SFI has called for a 12-hour ‘bandh’ in some area of south Kolkata on Thursday.

A large number of students from JNU, Delhi University and Jamia Millia also staged a demonstration outside Banga Bhawan in Delhi to protest the death of Sudipto. The protesters came to Banga Bhawan, owned by West Bengal government, and shouted slogans demanding immediate action against the policemen who were involved in the death of the 22-year-old.

JNUSU President Lenin said all those involved in the incident should be punished. Some students tried to scale the wall of the building but were stopped by police.

Speaking to the press, a distraught father of Sudipto said he would fight for justice at any cost.

Expressing anger over the death of Gupta, Union minister Manish Tewari has said the West Bengal government should overcome partisan politics and ensure justice in the case. “As a student/youth activist who often was at the receiving end of the tender mercies of police feel sad and angry at Sudipto Gupta’s death,” Tewari said in a post on social networking website Twitter. “Hope the government of W Bengal that consists of former Chattra Parishad/ Youth Congress activists would surmount partisan politics for justice,” he added.

SFI acvitists arrested in Chennai, Puducherry

Eighty SFI activists were arrested in Chennai and in Puducherry on Wednesday while protesting against the death of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta allegedly in police custody in Kolkata.

In Chennai, thirty SFI activists burnt an effigy of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and raised slogans against her, alleging that Sudipto’s death was not an accident as claimed by police, but a murder and demanded that those responsible be arrested. In the union territory, 50 SFI activists staged a demonstration and burnt an effigy of Mamata and shouted slogans.

CPI(M) rejects police claim, seeks judicial probe

New Delhi: CPI(M) on Wednesday demanded a judicial probe into the death of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta in police custody in Kolkata, refuting the police’s claim that he died after falling down from a bus.

“We just cannot accept this act of the police in any state where the police grants permission for peaceful demonstrations to be held. But in Kolkata, it beats up the students, arrests them, takes them in buses and in the process virtually murders a student,” CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

“Under police custody, such a death is something that cannot be accepted. The police version (that he died after falling from the bus) is incredulous. Therefore, we think there should be a judicial inquiry into this,” Yechury said.