Kolkata:
The Left plans 15-minute road blocks and a 12-hour bandh in the Kolkata area where 22-year-old Sudipto Gupta, a student activist who died in police custody, lived. Mr Gupta's family wants the CBI to investigate how he died after being arrested during a students' protest on Tuesday.
The Student's Federation of India leader was cremated last night as thousands in Kolkata poured out on the streets to grieve. An autopsy report released yesterday said that Mr Gupta had a broken jaw and fractures on his head, as well as injury marks all over his body and that all the injuries were sustained before his death.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that his death was an accident, but Mr Gupta's family wants to know how grievous injury marks appeared on his body if he died, as the police claim, of hitting his head on a lamp post while hanging out of a bus.
"My son was beaten by the police. His face was damaged. He was killed. You are offering me money. I don't need money. Can anyone return me my son?" Mr Gupta's father Pranab Gupta told NDTV. He has also said that he would fight for justice.
(Who will listen now to my violin, asks Sudipto's father)Mr Gupta was among hundreds of students who were protesting against the government's decision to postpone college union elections. They were forced by the police on to a bus that was meant to take them to jail. Mr Gupta's friends say he was battered by the police till he was unrecognisable.
But the ruling Trinamool Congress has rejected these allegations. "The incident was an accident...a sad accident," said Derek O' Brien of the Trinamool.
Infuriated Opposition parties say Chief Minister's conclusion shows a resistance to a fair inquiry. The CPM wants a judicial inquiry. "The SFI student leader has died in police custody, so the state government is solely responsible," CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said.
The driver of the bus that was taking Mr Gupta and other activists to jail has been arrested and charged with culpable homicide, provoking ridicule from the Left and others, who say he is being made the scapegoat for a clear example of police brutality.