The CPM has alleged that police in Bengal kept an ill SFI activist chained to a hospital bed for several hours on Monday night. Santosh Sahani,a BA first year student at Siliguris Surya Sen College,is reported to have been in the same bus as 23-year-old SFI leader Sudipta Gupta,who died in police custody in Kolkata earlier this month. Sahani,19,was among the 51 student leaders arrested in Siliguri on April 10 following alleged vandalism by rival Trinamool Congress student activists. He was produced in court the next day,where he fell ill and was taken to the Siliguri District Hospital. He was sent to prison from the hospital after two days,but was moved to the North Bengal Medical College hospital in Siliguri on Monday. According to CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya,who visited Sahani on Tuesday morning,the youth had spent over six hours of the previous night handcuffed to a bed,initially while lying on the floor and,subsequently,on the bed. Sahani had allegedly asked to go to the toilet for hours,but had been ignored. This is inhuman. I took a picture of the handcuff that was used to tie him to the bed rod, Bhattacharya said. He said Santosh had seen Sudpita die in Kolkata,and had himself been hit on the head that day. Siliguri police commissioner Anand Kumar declined to comment on the allegations.
