Kolkata, Dec 24: Veteran CPI(M) leader Nirupam Sen, credited as the architect of West Bengal's industrial drive during the Left Front rule, died at a city hospital on Monday morning after a prolonged illness, family sources said.


He was 72. The former politburo member of the party left behind his wife, a son and a daughter.

Sen passed away at 5:10 am following a cardiac arrest, hospital sources said.

The former West Bengal commerce and industry minister was on life support system after his health condition deteriorated in early December and had been critical since then.

"Sen was fighting kidney ailments. He was impaired by a cerebral attack in 2013," an official at the hospital said.

One of the most prominent faces of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya cabinet after the CPI(M)-led Left Front was voted to power in 2001, Sen was handed the charge of commerce and industries.

It was under the leadership of Bhattacharya and Sen that the Left Front started selling the dream of industrialisation in the state and shifted focus to private investments.

This shift in the policy reaped them heavy dividends resulting in the Left Front's resounding victory in the 2006 assembly election.

But by the end of 2006, land acquisition movement at Singur over the Tata Nano car plant had started taking toll on the regime. The protest against the forcible land acquisition ultimately led the Tata Motors to shift the car plant from Singur to Gujarat in 2008.

The anti-land acquisition protests in Singur and Nandigram led by the then opposition Trinamool Congress was one of the reasons behind the fall of the 34-year-old Left Front government in the state in 2011.

Faced with intense criticism both within and outside the party, Sen, then a CPI(M) politburo member, had withdrawn himself from active politics.

In the next few years due to ill health, he stepped down from the politburo, the central committee and earlier this year during the CPI(M) party congress, he stepped down from the state committee.

He was a three-time MLA from Bardhaman Dakshin constituency.

Party sources said Sen's body would be taken to his residence and then to a private mortuary in the city.

"On Wednesday, Sen's body will be taken to the CITU office here and then to the party's state head quarters where people will be allowed to pay their last respect," the sources said.

His mortal remains would be consigned to flames in Burdwan, his home town, on Wednesday.

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Mumbai, Jul 25 (PTI): Police have opposed the bail plea of the Bangladeshi national arrested for allegedly stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan with a knife and injuring him at his home here in January this year, telling a Mumbai court there was "strong evidence" against the accused.

Citing a Forensic Science Laboratory report, police reiterated before the sessions court their earlier claim knife fragments that got lodged near the actor's spine during the attack as well as a part found at the crime spot have matched with the weapon recovered from the accused, Shariful Islam.

These three pieces were part of the same weapon (knife) used to attack the filmstar, the police said in a written response to the accused's plea submitted in the court on Thursday (July 24).

Khan was repeatedly stabbed with a knife by an intruder inside his 12th floor apartment in upscale Bandra on January 16 during a robbery attempt.

The 54-year-old actor underwent surgery at Lilavati Hospital to remove a piece of knife that got lodged near his spine during the attack. He was discharged from the private hospital after five days.

Shariful Islam, a Bangladeshi national, was arrested two days later for allegedly stabbing Khan.

The police, in their response, highlighted that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen residing illegally in India.

If granted bail, there was a possibility that he may flee India and not appear before the court during the trial. The crime committed by the accused is of a "very serious nature, and strong evidence" is available against him, they argued.

In his bail plea, filed through advocate Vipul Dushing, the accused asserted he was innocent and had no prior criminal record.

Investigation into the case has practically concluded with only the filing of a chargesheet pending, the accused contended while seeking bail.

The alleged attacker has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections related to house trespass, robbery and dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous injury.