Kolkata: The bus driver who was accused of rash and negligent driving leading to the death of SFI activist Sudipto Gupta on Friday denied the allegations against him. He claimed that he was being framed by the Kolkata Police. The police had arrested Raja Das alleging that negligence on his part had led to Sudipto's death. Eyewitnesses, however, have a different story to tell. They have squarely blamed the police for Sudipto's death. Claiming that it was a custodial death, since the SFI protesters were being taken away on the bus by the police, the eyewitnesses and the students' federation has demanded action against the guilty policemen.
The family of Sudipto, meanwhile, met state Governor MK Narayanan on Friday. Sudipto's father Pranab Gupta and elder sister Sumita Sengupta were accompanied by leader of the opposition in state assembly, CPM leader Surjya Kanta Mishra.
The family has demanded a CBI probe into the incident. They say that they are dissatisfied with police investigations. The police, however, insists that Sudipto died after hitting a lamp post. To back up their claims, the Kolkata Police on Thursday said that the initial post-mortem report had shown that Sudipto died after hitting a stationary object and then hitting a rough structure.
Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee remains in denial over the matter. On Thursday, she termed the incident as "small and petty". She denied that the death was caused due to police brutality. "It is a small and petty matter. It was an accident, there was no police atrocity. You can see the post-mortem report," she said in Bangalore where she went to confer West Bengal's prestigious Vishes Sangeet Mahasamman award on eminent playback singer Manna Dey.
The police, however, appealed to the media not to jump to conclusion as the investigations were still underway. "Our appeal to media is please don't jump to a conclusion because the way the entire incident is being projected is not right," Joint Commissioner (Hqs) Javed Shamim said.
With additional information from PTI
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