A fifty-five-year-old senior leader of Assam state unit of the Communist Party of India Manoj Deka, who was roughed up by the police on Tuesday evening, died of serious head injury at a private hospital in Guwahati.

Spitting fire over the death of its leader at the hands of the errant policemen, the state unit of the CPI has demanded judicial probe into the incident, rejecting the magisterial probe ordered by the Congress government in the state.

Deka received serious injuries in the back of his head after Police Constable Rafiqul Islam, a PSO of the Officer In-Charge of Marigaon police station Kamal Chandra Bora, roughed him up on the evening of Tuesday when the CPI leader was returning home from the local market.

He was later shifted to Guwahati Neurological Research Centre where he breathed his last on Friday this morning, leaving behind his three minor sons, and a hapless wife. The state unit of the CPI alleged that it was a planned murder and the policemen involved must be arrested and slapped with murder charge.

Meanwhile, in view of growing public protest the district superintendent of police has suspended the officer in charge of Marigaon police station who was present when his PSO had attacked the CPI leader.

The PSO had been arrested under Section 307 of the Cr PC.

The state government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. However, the CPI state unit has rejected the magisterial probe and demanded a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge.

The party is going to launch a series of agitation in the state in coordination with other opposition political parties against the 'state-sponsored murder' of the CPI leader.

A senior leader of the party informed that all the opposition political parties in Assam had expressed solidarity with the CPI in protesting the 'political elimination' of one of its senior leaders.

Deka was a member of the state executive committee of the CPI.