Will come out with truth even if it goes against us: Kolkata top cop

Jawed Shamim, Joint Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, addressed a press conference today to clear doubts about the police’s role in SFI leader Sudipta Gupta’s death. He said that they have instituted a transparent probe and will come out with the truth even if it goes against the police.

“Whatever the truth is, even if it goes against us, we will come out with it and share it with the public,” Shamim said.

Asking the media not to jump to conclusions, Shamim said, “The incident is unfortunate. We are conducting a very transparent probe and we are not ruling out any possibility.”

He said that the postmortem report suggested that the injury to Sudipto’s head occurred because it  hit a stationary blunt object.

“The postmortem has revealed that there was no injury caused by a baton, iron rods or glass,” Shamim said and added, “We cannot come to a definite conclusion until investigation is over.”

The 22-year-old SFI leader died in police custody on 3 April. The incident occurred when hundreds of supporters of the SFI hit the streets to protest against the state higher education department’s decision to stall students’ union elections at all educational institutions for the next six months.

SFI members claimed that Sudipta, an MA student in the Rabindra Bharati University, died after he was “brutally hit by policemen on his head and face” that led to his fall from the bus in which he was being taken to jail.