Kurseong shuts as road rage kills boy

SNS,Kurseong, 9 October: Tension reigned supreme in Kurseong throughout the day today after an accidental death of a boy studying in class-X.

The incident occurred in between 6:30 and 7:00 am near Plaza Cinema Hall in the town along the on National Highway-55.

Silaz Sarki, 15, was headed for his tuitions and then to school on foot from his rented house at Cutlery Busty when a Maruti Omni coming from Darjeeling side hit him. His school reopened today after the long Puja vacations.

Sarki was a permanent resident of Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate under the Kurseong Sub Division.

Another student, Aman Biswakarma, of the same school was with Sarki when the accident occurred. It is learnt that the vehicle dragged the boy around 15 feet and that he died after being crushed by one of the wheels.

The driver fled after the incident, leaving his vehicle behind.

Angry family members, school students and staff and the public assembled at the Kurseong Sub Divisional Hospital where the body of the deceased was taken for post-mortem. They staged a “chakka jam” from 10:30 am under the Jan Mukti Bidhyarthi Morcha’s guidance.

Shops downed shutters and traffic came to a grinding halt leaving a long line of vehicles coming from Darjeeling and Siliguri stranded along NH-55.

A salon was ransacked by the mob as it went around town asking shopkeepers to down shutters. 

A protest rally was taken out under the banner of the Bidhyarthi Morcha in which students from different schools in Kurseong participated. 

The students later went to the SDPO and IC, Kurseong, and demanded immediate arrest of the absconding driver.

Tourists had a harrowing time due to the highway blockade, and some of them said they were stranded for hours without food or water and without a place to answer natures’ call.

Kurseong Police finally assured the family members and the protesters that it would do the needful and resumed traffic on the highway at around 4 pm.

The body of the deceased was finally taken away by the family members to his ancestral home in Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate after that.

“The police and the motor vehicle department must be careful as these kinds of incidents occur very frequently,” said Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) member and Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha leader in Kurseong, Yogendra Rai. Police said they have assured the protesters that they would nab the culprit within the next 24 hours. 

Though the entire day’s protest was led by the Bidhyarthi Morcha, some of its senior members clarified late in the evening that the highway blockade and the shutdown were not called under its banner. 

“We had rather gathered in the streets to help the grieving family members of the deceased,” they said.