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Deepak Chandra at MGM Medical College and Hospital on Thursday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta
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A young man died a bizarre death on board a shuttle van, 18km from the city, on Thursday morning.
Somnath Khalinga (20), who worked at a transport company in Chandil and was returning home to Patamda, was found with a fractured skull after a police patrol intercepted the van around 10.30am.
Curiously, neither the driver of the vehicle nor any other passenger could say how, where or when the youth received the fatal injury.
Police suspect Somnath was feeling the breeze in his hair when his head hit some stationary object or moving vehicle. Though the freak accident may have taken place more than 10 minutes before the van was intercepted, the horror eluded all six passengers in the crammed vehicle.
Driver Rupak Mahto claimed to have seen nothing. “I am clueless about how he received the injuries and when he died. All I know is that the boy boarded my van from Mango and wanted to go to Patamda,” he told police.
Patamda OC Ramchandra Mahto, who led the patrol, said Somnath was identified from the gate pass of the firm he worked for. “We found it in his pocket,” he said.
He added that it was not clear what hit him. “It may have been a tree, a lamp-post or another vehicle — we don’t know for certain yet.”
Police are detaining Mahto for further questioning, while passengers have been let off.
In another incident, a 50-year-old woman was run over by a speeding trailer near her house at Sankosai on Dimna Road in Olidih police station area of Mango.
The fatal mishap took place around 11.30am when Shobha Chandra was riding pillion on son Deepak’s bike. They were on their way to a relative’s place in Golmuri.
Deepak escaped with a fracture in his left hand and is admitted to MGM Medical College and Hospital.
His mother was crushed under the wheels of the heavy vehicle.
After the accident, the trailer driver jumped off his vehicle and tried to flee, but passers-by caught him. He was beaten up and later handed over to police.
Local residents set up a blockade to protest against movement of heavy vehicles in the area. The agitation was called off after 30 minutes.
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