The mortal remains of eminentBengali litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay who died here two daysago were consigned to flames today.
His son Souvik, who arrived from Boston yesterdayperformed the last rites at the Keoratala cremation grounds.
Souvik told PTI that his father had once expressed adesire to donate his body after death.
"But there is no such will of his. It was just a thoughtin his mind and so we did not donate his body," he said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, cabinet colleagues andmourners walked the five kilometres from Rabindra Sadan, thestate auditorium, to the cremation ground in south Kolkatawith the Kolkata Police escorting the cortege.
At the Rabindra Sadan there was an unending stream ofmourners who waited to pay their last respects and Banerjee,mike in hand, intervened to control the crowd.
Earlier, cutting across party lines Banerjee, cabinetcolleagues Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee, WBPCCpresident Pradeep Bhattacharya, former chief ministerBuddhadeb Bhattacherjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose andLeader of the Opposition Surayakanta Mishra laid wreaths onthe body.
Film-makers Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen, poet Sankha Ghosh,writers Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay,popularly known as 'Shankar', were also present.
Some admirers of the writer who was born at Faridpur inerstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh also turned up.
In the morning the body was taken to the office ofAnandabazar Patrika, where Gangopadhyay had begun his careeras a sub-editor and was associated with 'Desh' magazinepublished by them.