Ready to offer job, financial support to family of deceased DYFI activist: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Feb 15: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said her government is ready to provide financial support to family members of DYFI activist Maidul Islam Midda, who succumbed to injuries sustained during a clash between police and members of Left parties.

Banerjee said the police has launched an investigation and the exact cause of his death would be known only after the post-mortem examination. "I do not support any death. A probe is underway... I have come to know that even his family members were not informed where he was admitted. No police complaint was made in this connection, too," she said at the state secretariat.

"I have spoken to Sujan Chakraborty (Left Front leader), and told him that I am ready to provide job and financial support to the family," the chief minister said. Midda, who was critically injured in a clash with the police during the Left parties' march to the West Bengal secretariat on February 11, died on Monday morning.

He had suffered renal failure, following which he died due to cardiac arrest, CPI(M) leader Dr Fuad Halim, at whose medical facility Midda was being treated, said. Banerjee said it is also important to ascertain whether Midda, who is survived by wife and two children, had any health complication.

Student and youth wings of Left parties had clashed with the police during the rally, leading to injuries on both sides. The police lathicharged, burst tear gas shells and used water cannons to disperse the activists. The Left Front had called a 12-hour state-wide bandh on February 12 in protest against the police action.