Sudipto Gupta at the SFI protest on Rani Rashmoni Avenue on Tuesday (top). This picture was taken by a friend on his cellphone before Sudipto was rounded up. (below) A picture of Sudipto from his Facebook page.

Calcutta, April 2: A 23-year-old SFI leader succumbed to his head injuries after tomato-hit police rounded him up during a law-violation programme in the heart of the city today.

Sudipto Gupta, who had completed his postgraduate course barely a month ago, is the first student activist to die in custody in Bengal in recent memory.

Conflicting versions have emerged on what caused the injury that led to the death of Sudipto, an SFI state committee member.

SFI activists, including a girl who said she was a witness, alleged that the police beat up Sudipto while he and 30 others were being taken to the Presidency jail in a private bus.

“He was pushed out of the bus by policemen and his head hit a lamp-post near the Presidency jail. One cop hit him on his head with a lathi,” said Tanushree Mondal, a fellow activist.

But Jawed Shamim, special additional commissioner of police (headquarters), termed the death an accident. “Sudipto and the other students were on the foot-board and lost balance when the bus took a turn…. Sudipto’s head hit a road-side lamp-post and he fell off the vehicle,” Shamim said.

SSKM Hospital, where Sudipto was declared dead at 6.20pm, said the head injury appeared to have been caused by a metallic object. “Sudipto died because of a severe head injury and multiple other injuries. Apparently, the head injury was caused after he hit a heavy metallic object,” said Tamal Kanti Ghosh, medical superintendent of SSKM.

The police said CCTV footage showed a home guard, Biswajit Mondal, being hit with bamboo sticks after Sudipto was injured. The injured home guard, who was apparently on the same bus as Sudipto, has been admitted to the intensive care unit of a private hospital, the police added.

The death has inflamed political passions, already on the boil because of the controversy over the panchayat elections, in the state.

The CPM has called a “12-hour general strike in the Tollygunge-Garia area” on Thursday. The area has been chosen because Sudipto lived in Garia and had graduated in political science from Netaji Nagar Day College nearby.

“I can’t remember the death of a student in police custody in recent memory…. We want a judicial probe into the death of Sudipto,” said Left Front chairman Biman Bose.

“We are calling a 12-hour general strike in the Tollygunge-Garia area to protest his death,” Bose told a late-night news conference. He did not elaborate on the shutdown, which will affect one of the busiest stretches in the city. The details are expected to be thrashed out tomorrow.

Family members said Sudipto had lost his mother Anita a year and a half ago. His father Pranab Gupta is a retired employee of a private firm.

Some of Sudipto’s friends recalled him as an active member of social networking sites like Facebook, where his status message read: “You see there’s this loneliness and sometimes it eats us all alive.”

SFI all-India general secretary Ritabrata Bandopadhyay described Sudipto as one of the “timidest of timid comrades”.

Sudipto — who used to like Rabindra Sangeet, Revolutionary Students Movement and also Shah Rukh Khan — died around an hour before the superstar took the stage for the IPL opening ceremony in the city.

The events that led to the death unfolded on Rani Rashmoni Avenue at the city centre in the afternoon. Some 3,500 SFI activists had reached there in a procession from Wellington Square, demanding students’ elections in colleges.

The state government had “advised” universities to put the elections on hold for six months after the Garden Reach clash killed a police officer and landed Trinamul in its biggest crisis since taking power.

Sudipto was in the group that converged on Rashmoni Avenue. During the protest, some SFI activists hurled tomatoes at the police and kicked down the mobile barricades.

After 15 to 20 minutes and around 2.45pm, a large contingent of police bundled the youths into private buses after a token arrest. They were taken to the Presidency jail, from where they would have been released on bail, as is the customary practice with most demonstrators.

“He was pushed by three policemen who were on the bus… He fell off the bus and hit a lamp-post,” said Tanushree who was also arrested and put on the same bus.

According to her, the three policemen in khaki beat the arrested SFI activists even inside the bus. “The bus stopped much ahead of the Presidency jail and we were reluctant to get down. But the police said we would have to walk to the gate,” she said.

“Sudiptoda was pushed by the policemen and he fell off and hit a lamp-post. At the same time, a cop standing outside hit him hard with a lathi which caused a deep cut on his head and his left eye was popping out,” she added.

SFI leaders claimed the policeman who beat Sudipto was Sanjay Sen, a homeguard at Kasba police station. The Telegraph was unable to speak to such a homeguard or confirm if a person by that name was on duty.

“No policeman initially helped us get a vehicle to take Sudipto to hospital. Finally, he was taken to SSKM and admitted to the critical care unit,” Tanushree said.

Dona Gupta, a secretariat member of the Calcutta SFI district committee, lodged an FIR against police personnel at the scene of the assault. The FIR, filed at Alipore police station late in the evening, mentioned that “crucial 30 minutes were lost” after Sudipto was brought to SSKM Hospital in a comatose state, a charge that the hospital authorities denied.

SFI leaders alleged that police excesses during today’s law-violation programmed led to injuries of seven activists. One of them, Joseph Azam Khan from Khargram in Murshidabad, was admitted with grievous injury in his right hand after glass shards fell on his hand.

The SFI leaders claimed the policemen smashed windows of the bus to intimidate the arrested activists.

The police said they went by the rulebook. But some officers blamed the death on alleged “mishandling”.

Sources said that although 12 buses were arranged to take the arrested supporters to the correctional home and only 331 persons were officially arrested from the spot, several vehicles appeared packed beyond capacity. Besides, the buses did not have adequate home guards, an officer said.

“For big meetings where there is apprehension that the rallyists may turn violent, there is an elaborate three-tier police arrangement. But today, the number of police personnel was inadequate and there was only one layer of barricades,” said an officer posted on RR Avenue.