A food delivery man was burnt to death in Salt Lake near Kolkata on Wednesday evening after a car that had caught fire following a collision crashed into his two-wheeler, police said. The accident took place near a bridge connecting Salt Lake and VIP Road, near Kestopur.

Bidhannagar police have filed a suo motu case. However, no arrest has been made.

“Two cars collided on the bridge. One of them was going at a high speed and veered off, hit a lamp post and footpath railing, and caught fire. The delivery man’s two-wheeler hit the railing and his clothes got stuck in the iron rails,” said Aneesh Sarkar, deputy commissioner, Bidhannagar police.

The deceased has been identified as Soumen Mandal, 22, a resident of Hiranmaypur in South 24-Parganas.

How did the accident happen?

On Wednesday afternoon, a four-wheeler came at a reckless speed near the new bridge near AK Block in Salt Lake and hit two bikes in a row. The delivery boy was on one of the bikes. He was dragged to the railing. The young man got stuck in the railing. Meanwhile, the car burst into flames. The passengers in the four-wheeler were rescued. However, the delivery boy could not be saved. He was burnt alive on the spot. His trousers got entangled in the railing, preventing him from escaping the fire.

Locals allege police was busy making video instead of rescuing delivery man

Although the police were at the scene, the locals alleged that they were busy making videos instead of rescuing the delivery boy. This angered the locals. They alleged that they hurled bricks and stones at the police. In response, the police fired tear gas shells to control the situation. Three occupants of the cars and a pedestrian were injured.

According to an eyewitness, “The accident happened right in front of the police. The police were making videos without doing anything. We ran and rescued the people from the car. The driver was intoxicated. If the police had acted properly, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“He was hanging upside down from the railing, and his clothes were stuck. He burned to death in front of us,” said another witness.

Another eyewitness said, “We tried a lot. We poured water with buckets. There was so much fire, we couldn’t get close. The boy was burned.”

Car passengers injured, driver fled

Three men from the two cars were rescued. Manas Agarwal was pulled out from the car that bore the brunt of the crash and was almost entirely gutted. His driver, Binod escaped, the police said. From the second car, Nilanjan Basu and Achintya Chanda were rescued. Basu suffered multiple injuries, while Chanda was injured on the foot, the police said. A pedestrian, Aditya Jha, was also injured.

The police said they were checking CCTV footage to verify the sequence of events.

More than 12 hours have passed since the incident, but the driver of the deadly vehicle is still at large. Many are questioning why the police have not yet located the driver despite having the number plate.

Meanwhile, the place where the young man was stuck in the railing is reportedly left uncovered. As a result, even if forensic experts arrive, the question remains whether they will find proper evidence or not.

Mob pelted stones at emergency vehicles: Police

The police alleged that fire tenders were delayed by a mob that pelted stones at emergency vehicles.

“After we rescued some occupants, fire tenders were obstructed by stone-pelting. The situation turned volatile, and we had to wait for reinforcements. By the time additional forces arrived, one person had unfortunately died,” said deputy commissioner Sarkar.

Police used tear gas to disperse crowd

Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd after some attempted to block traffic from both ends of the bridge. The situation turned into a pitched battle, with stones thrown from both sides for several minutes. A senior police officer denied inaction, saying officers rescued trapped passengers and sent them to hospital. “We had to use tear gas when protesters tried to block the road,” he said.

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