DYFI activist's death sparks political fight in Bengal

Kolkata: The political cauldron was on the boil in poll-bound West Bengal on Monday over the death of a DYFI activist with the Left Front accusing the state government of 'cold-blooded murder' and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemning the incident and offering a job and financial help to the bereaved family.

Maidul Islam Midda an activist of DYFI, a CPM youth wing, was injured during the Left March to the secretariat on February 11. He was admitted to a private hospital where he died this morning. “He died because of Rhabdomyolysis followed by kidney failure and pulmonary embolism after which there was a cardiac arrest this morning,” said CPM leader and doctor Fuad Halim, at whose medical facility Midda was treated before being shifted to another hospital, said.

31-year-old Midda, a resident of Bankura, was a toto- van driver by profession. An FIR was registered with Shakespeare Sarani police station in the city in connection with the death, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said. The death triggered a political slugfest in the poll-bound state with CPI(M) accusing the police and Trinamool Congress government of “murdering” Midda and terming it as a “cold-blooded murder”.