On Thursday, the stretcher on which his body was carried during the last journey was handed over by the SSKM Hospital authorities to Udayer Pathe, an NGO. “We told the hospital authorities that this is a very important artifact and we expressed our desire to preserve it,” said Bappa Ghosh, joint secretary of Udayer Pathe, South Calcutta unit.

Ghosh, however, said the organisation would be happy to donate the stretcher to the museum which is likely to come up at Indira Bhavan.

The hospital authorities, meanwhile, are also keen on preserving the various artifacts associated with Basu. “We also have some artifacts like his pair of shoes, a pen, spectacles and the coat he used to wear. We are keen to preserve these articles,” said Pradip Kumar Mitra, Director of the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research at SSKM Hospital.