The family of deceased student leader Sudipto Gupta on Friday met Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and demanded a CBI inquiry into his death.
The development came a day after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dismissed the 23-year-old postgraduate student’s custodial death en route to the Presidency Jail as an “unfortunate accident” and a “petty and small matter.”
The family requested the Governor for a CBI inquiry within hours of the driver of the bus — in which he was being transported to the jail — Raja Das telling media channels that the police had indeed lathi-charged the captive students after they had alighted from the vehicle.
Sudipto and many of his companions were arrested on Tuesday from a students’ rally staged to protest against the Government decision indefinitely postponing college elections post Garden Reach cop murder case in which again a police officer was shot dead by the henchmen of a ruling Trinamool Congress councilor.
The statement of the driver who was earlier booked under Section 304A of the IPC in an alleged move by the police to let pass the incident as an accidental death came a day after the police quoted post-mortem reports saying Sudipto had indeed died of ante-mortem head injuries to the back and front of his head from a hard, blunt stationery object.
legal experts, however, wondered how the stationery object — in the case a PWD lamppost could inflict simultaneous injuries both on the back and front of the skull as also on the jaws of the victim.
“We have told the Governor that after the Chief Minister has passed her judgment saying it is a small and petty incident we expect cannot anything more from her. We can guess the fate of the investigation when such remarks come from the head of the Government,” said the victim’s elder sister adding “in these circumstances only a CBI inquiry can establish the truth.”
Pranab Kumar Gutpo, the father of the deceased, wondered “what right the Chief Minister has got to continue to on her chair after making such comments. She should immediately step down after making such insensitive statements”, he said, adding “she could only say so because she does not have her own off springs. If she had one she could have understood the pain of a father who has lost of his only son.”
The family went to the Governor with State Opposition leader Suryankanto Mishra who said “my role was only that of a facilitator. As they requested me to take them to the Governor I brought them with me to meet him” adding the Governor said that he would ensure that the family got justice.
Meanwhile, in a damaging statement the bus driver on Friday literally punctured the claims made by the police saying the cops had indeed lath-charged the students even after they got down of the bus.
“They are claiming that I was driving fast and negligently. But I was driving at a speed of about 40 km,” he said and added there were two cops inside the bus when the students were being transported to the jail.
Eyewitnesses said the students had refused to get down off the vehicle in the way and insisted on being taken to the prison. When they refused the policemen inside the bus beat, kicked and pushed Sudipto who was leading the protests. In the melee he was thrown out of the bus and hit the post.
“Even after he fell of the vehicle he was beaten up,” said his sister quoting witnesses and adding “they are now telling lies to save their skins but how can they explain the multiple injuries all over his person. They have simply killed my brother.”