Siliguri, April 10: A college student was beaten to death here last night in the presence of his friends by a group of 20-25 youths, who were allegedly out to take revenge.
Four persons have been arrested although the main accused, identified as Gullu alias Souvik Karmakar, a resident of Coal Depot, is missing.
Bapan Saha, who lived in Adarshanagar Colony in Ward 4, was a second year BCom student of Suryasen College and worked part time in a private firm that dealt with packing and shifting of goods.
Around 10pm, accompanied by six friends, Bapan had gone to Panjabipara to meet the owner of the firm for some payments. On their way back, they were overpowered by the group at Mahakalpally.
“We were close to the Mahananda Bridge and suddenly these boys surrounded us. There were nearly 25 of them. They started beating up Bapan ruthlessly with their bare hands. Some of them held us tight so that we could not move,” said Bubai Banerjee, one of the witnesses and Bapan’s friend.
After sometime, Biswajit Roy managed to break free and rush to councillor Parimal Mitra’s house, located almost a kilometre away. Mitra, on hearing about the attack arrived with his supporters near the bridge, an otherwise deserted stretch. They saw Bapan lying on the road and his friends hovering over him.
“It was around 10.10pm, when I came to know of the incident from some people of Adarshanagar (who by then heard of the incident from Biswajit). We visited the spot and took Bapan to the district hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” said Mitra. He added that Bapan was a popular youth and much liked by the people of the ward.
The other four friends —Kalu, Suraj, Raja and Subho —were there at the spot when the councillor arrived, Bubai said in an FIR filed with Siliguri police station.
Two months ago, Bapan had an altercation with Gullu regarding the Ward Utsav. The 20-year-old college student had objected to Gullu’s interfering with the nitty-gritty of the festival, saying that he did not belong to Ward 4.
“After that, Gullu threatened my brother with dire consequences. I had tried to sort out the issue and even after the interference of the ward councillor, Gullu refused to budge from his stand or consider the chapter closed. Last night’s attack on my brother was the result of his anger,” said Bappa, who had at first fainted on seeing his brothers’ body at the Siliguri subdivisional hospital.
This morning, members of SFI demonstrated in front of the police station and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
Shova and Mangal Saha, Bapan’s parents, could hardly speak.
Kajol Chanda, one of the residents of the ward, complained that Gullu and his family were infamous for their rowdism. “He and his brother Abhishek had threatened Bapan several times. But we never realised that the threat would come to murder,” he said.
Prabhat Chakraborty, the inspector-in-charge of the Siliguri police station, after receiving the memorandum from the SFI said among those arrested was Gullu’s father Swapan Karmakar, a trader. “We have conducted raids at several places in Coal Depot, Adarshanagar and Mahakalpally. We will continue the raids till the entire gang is rounded up,” Chakraborty said.
