Kolkata: In a major embarrassment for West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee regime, the state rights panel yesterday recommended Rs1m compensation for the custodial death of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta here in April.
A full bench of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, which met during the day, pointed at the responsibility of police in the April 2 incident, saying such “unfortunate” happenings could have been avoided had the lawkeepers been “more alert”, “careful” and acted in a “professional manner”. Gupta, a leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) students’ arm Students Federation of India (SFI), died under mysterious circumstances after his arrest for taking part in an agitation in central Kolkata.
Left activists have claimed Gupta was “mercilessly beaten” while he and other students who had staged the protests seeking holding of college elections, were being taken in a bus to the Presidency Correctional Home (jail). However, Chief Minister Banerjee and police have maintained that the 24-year old died after his head hit a lamp post when he was perched on the footboard of the bus.
Despite accepting the administration’s version based on medical evidence and the probe report, the commission pointed out lacunae in the arrangements made by police to take those arrested to the correctional home. The panel said police were squarely responsible for the safety and security of those arrested since they were in their custody.
“The life of a bright young man was cut short in the prime of his life for no fault of his own. The Commission does not think that it is an incident to be trifled with,” said the commission headed by Justice (retd) Ashok Kumar Ganguly.
It has asked the government to carry out its recommendations within two months.
“Sudipta Gupta was sent (to a correctional home) in a bus driven by a driver who did not have a licence for driving a bus,” the panel said, while pointing out police had not arranged for adequate number of buses, and 70 agitators were put in one bus.
IANS
