Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Durgapur, 30 Sep. 04: 
The locals ransacked the DTPS police outpost, assaulted the cops and set ablaze a vehicle this morning after a road accident claimed life of a 13 year-old school girl in Mayabazar area in Durgapur town. The CISF jawans allegedly joined the angry mob while attacking the police outpost alleging police inaction to prevent rash driving of trucks inside the colony area. The victim girl, Puja Das (13) was the daughter of a CISF cook of the DVC barrack. The girl, a class seven student of Amaravati Central School was on her way back home from school along with her friends at Mayabazar. She got down from the bus at a distance only few metres from the local DTPS police outpost. She used to reside inside the CISF barrack. The CISF is deployed there to protect the DVC owned Durgapur Thermal Power Station. The road inside the DVC colony is also used by the trucks engaged by a private company to transport fly-ash from the DVC’s ash pond to the abandoned coal mines in Raniganj-Asansol coalfields area. Everyday the ash carrier trucks complete 200 trips, informed DVC officials.

One such truck moving at a speeding within the restricted zone suddenly lost control and was approaching towards the home-bound students. Puja was first to notice the unusual appearance of the loaded truck and managed to rescue her schoolmate Ambika Mondal, an 8 year-old girl by pushing her aside from the track of the truck. But she could not protect herself and was hit from behind. She died on spot. The driver and the helper of the truck fled the scene and surrendered at the police outpost to escape the local’s fury.

The locals of the Mayabazar and DVC colony broke out in protest and raided the outpost attempting to rob the crewmen of the truck. The policemen present in the outpost were outnubmered by the angry mob, virtually had to witness the mayhem when the mass went on berserk. The mass set ablaze a vehicle that was seized by the police. Two motorcycles, one television, utensils etc. were ransacked and 20 seized bicycles were robbed by the mass when the constables present in the outpost were forced to remain as mere watchers. The CISF constables also rushed to the outpost and the constables present in the outpost complained that a section of them also joined the wild spree with the locals to vent their anger, as the deceased was the daughter of a CISF staff. Three policemen sustained injury during the mayhem. An inspector of the CISF said, "the police have several times been asked to check the rash drive of lorries within the colony premises. But they never bother. It was very natural that the jawans failed to check their emotion when one of their colleagues lost his daughter." 

The police resorted to rampant laathi charge to control the fury of the mass. One fire tender brought the blaze under control. To prevent further chaos the district police asked the adjoining police stations to rush to Mayabazar. The SP, Burdwan, Niraj Kumar Singh told bardhaman.com, that eight persons have been arrested on charges of ransack in to the outpost. To maintain surveillance additional police contingents have been sent for patrolling in the area. The DVC authority stopped fly-ash transportation immediately after the incident. Setting fire in vehicles under the police custody has become a trend in the town since last year when a father and his two children died on spot at Bhiringi crossing on 4 September 2003. The cops vehicles were set ablaze by the irate mass. The police had to open fire for 20 rounds and three persons had died to police bullet while agitating against rash driving.