On a Friday night in Hooghly district, a car carrying men sent to fetch Durga idols for a village puja ran into a roadside stack of bricks near Anantapur and never reached home. Three of its occupants died, and three more lie injured in hospitals, while the village that had been waiting for its goddess is left to absorb the loss just as the festival season opens. Why the car struck the bricks remains unsettled; the local account points toward speed and drink, but the police have not yet said so, and the autopsies will have the first word on what the night actually held.
Three Killed as Car Hits Brick Stack While Ferrying Durga Idols in Hooghly
Three people died and three were seriously injured, including Bhaskar Devdhara, Pritam Chakraborty and Swapan De.
The truck made it home. The car behind it never arrived.
Mark
The detail that stays with me is the truck arriving and the car not. Why does that matter?
Mimi
Because that's how the village found out. The idols got home, the car didn't, the committee phoned someone inside it, and police answered.
Luke
Worth noting that's one committee member's account of the call. The police statement covers the crash itself, not that sequence.
Mark
What do we know about the crash?
Mimi
Near Anantapur, around midnight Friday, coming down from the Chandannagar rail overbridge, the car hit bricks piled at the roadside. Two died there, one later in hospital.
Luke
That comes from a senior district police officer, so it's solid on the basic facts. Names and ages are reported as 'learned', which is looser.
Mark
And the liquor bottles?
Mimi
A local youth said he saw them and assumed the occupants had been drinking and the driver lost control.
Luke
That's an inference from a bystander. Police haven't said it. Bottles in a car don't show who drank, or whether the driver did.
Mark
So what's still unknown?
Luke
Cause, speed, the driver's condition, and the state of the three survivors. The autopsies may help, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Il Polso
- A car that should have followed the idol truck home vanished into a midnight crash near Anantapur, and a worried puja committee learned of it by phone.
- Two people died at the roadside, a third died in hospital, and three seriously injured survivors are spread across Chinsurah and Kolkata.
- Locals claim liquor bottles were found inside and that the car was racing, but police have not confirmed either detail.
- Autopsies at Chinsurah Imambara Hospital are set for Saturday, and investigators must decide whether alcohol or speed was to blame.
- The village of Shankarbati must hold its Durga Puja preparations under the shadow of three empty places and three hospital beds.
On a Friday night in Hooghly district, a car carrying men sent to fetch Durga idols for a village puja ran into a roadside stack of bricks near Anantapur and never reached home. Three of its occupants died, and three more lie injured in hospitals, while the village that had been waiting for its goddess is left to absorb the loss just as the festival season opens. Why the car struck the bricks remains unsettled; the local account points toward speed and drink, but the police have not yet said so, and the autopsies will have the first word on what the night actually held.
On Friday night, a truck loaded with Durga idols rolled into Shankarbati village in Hooghly district, West Bengal. The car that was meant to follow it, carrying six people collecting the idols for the community puja, never arrived.
As the hours stretched on, the puja committee grew uneasy. When one of them phoned a passenger, the police answered and said the car had been in an accident. Committee members rushed to the scene near Anantapur, where the vehicle had come down from the Chandannagar rail overbridge and struck a pile of bricks stacked at the roadside. Two people died there. Four more were pulled out badly hurt; one died later at Chinsurah Imambara Hospital, one survivor was referred to SSKM in Kolkata, and two remain in treatment.
The dead were Bhaskar Devdhara, 29, of Shankarbati; Pritam Chakraborty, 30; and Swapan De, 40, the last two from Surerpukur in the Chandannagar area. The police have not established a cause. A local youth told reporters the car was moving fast and that liquor bottles were inside, but the official statement mentioned neither alcohol nor speed.
Autopsies were scheduled for Saturday, and investigators will have to answer whether drink or speed played a part. For the village, the answer will arrive alongside the start of Durga Puja, a season that now carries the weight of three names and three hospital beds.
On Friday night, a truck carrying Durga idols pulled into Shankarbati village in Hooghly district, West Bengal. The car that was supposed to be right behind it never arrived.
The village sits in the Polba-Dadpur block. Its residents had sent a group to Patuapara in Chandannagar to collect the idols for their community puja. The truck made it home. The four-wheeler following it carried six people, the driver among them. As the hours passed, a member of the puja committee said, the committee grew worried at the delay and phoned one of the people in the car. Police picked up the call and told them the car had been in an accident.
Committee members went to the scene and then on to the Chandannagar Subdivisional Hospital. Police from Chandannagar station reached the site first, followed by officers from Polba station.
The crash happened near Anantapur, around midnight on Friday, as the car came down from the Chandannagar rail overbridge. A senior Hooghly district police officer said it struck a pile of bricks stacked at the roadside. Two people died at the scene. Four were pulled out badly hurt and taken to Chinsurah Imambara Hospital, where one of them died. One survivor was then referred to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, and the other two remain in treatment at Chinsurah.
Three people died and three were seriously injured. The dead were named as Bhaskar Devdhara, 29, of Aankarbati; Pritam Chakraborty, 30; and Swapan De, 40. Chakraborty and De both lived in Surerpukur, in the Chandannagar area.
The cause has not been established by police. A local youth who spoke to reporters said the car came at high speed and hit the bricks, and that liquor bottles were found inside. He said the occupants must have been drinking and that the driver must have lost control. That is his account and his inference; the police statement quoted in the report did not mention alcohol or speed.
Autopsies on the bodies were scheduled for Saturday at Chinsurah Imambara Hospital. Whether alcohol or speed played a part is a question investigators are expected to take up, and the condition of the three survivors is the other thing to watch as the Durga Puja season begins for the village.
Citazioni salienti
The car came at a high speed and hit the stack of bricks; liquor bottles were found in the car, so the driver must have lost control.— Local youth, speaking to reporters (unverified)
The car hit a pile of bricks at the roadside; two died on the spot and one later in hospital.— Senior officer, Hooghly district police (paraphrased)
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