Mamata govt comes under fire, oppn demands judicial probe

The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal came under fire today from opposition parties which pressed for a judicial probe into the death of a young SFI leader in police custody under controversial circumstances which sparked an outrage.
Amid protests, thousands of people joined the funeral procession of 22-year-old Sudipta Gupta after former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta Mishra among other top CPI-M leaders paid their last respects at the Dinesh Mazumdar Bhavan, the SFI state headquarters.
Bose said the Left Front has demanded a judicial probe into the death of the MA student of the Rabindra Bharati University.

The Chief Minister was also targetted by the Opposition for watahcing the IPL cricket tournament inauguration here yesterday on a day when the student leader died.
The funeral processionists shouted slogans condemning alleged police brutality on the students at yesterday's rally even as the Trinamool government was dubbed by opposition as "insensitive".
The West Bengal Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the death of the student after arrest while being taken to Presidency Jail here following a law violation programme by the SFI.

WBHRC chairman Justice (retd) Ashok Ganguly told PTI that the Commissioner of Kolkata Police has been asked to submit a report within a week.

Banerjee, who visited the state-run SSKM Hospital where the student leader's body was kept to express her condolences, described the death as unfortunate, but evaded a question on whether a judicial inquiry would be ordered.
"Any death is unfortunate. This is also unfortunate. I will not say anything more than this," she told reporters.
Banerjee claimed the student leader was killed when he hit a 'post' and that many of her own party workers had died similarly when they had thrust their heads out while travelling by train. Sudipta's father Pranab Kumar claimed he was beaten to death by police.

SFI members present at the hospital shouted slogans against the chief minister during the visit.
Sudipta's elder sister demanded a CBI inquiry.
A doctor, who performed the postmortem on Sudipta, said he received a fatal head injury after being hit by a blunt object but did not elaborate.