Kolkata, Feb 24: In a shocking incident in West Bengal's West Burdwan district, a dancer-cum-event management professional died early on Monday as her vehicle met with an accident when the driver increased speed and took evasive action in an attempt to save her from drunk youths chasing them. Police are yet to make any headway in tracing the accused, leading to strong condemnation from the victim's mother and opposition leaders.

The deceased has been identified as Sutandra Chattopadhyay, a resident of Chandernagor in West Bengal's Hooghly district. Four other passengers travelling by the vehicle received minor injuries.

According to a statement given by the vehicle driver Rajedeo Sharma to the police as well as to the media persons, Chattopadhyay, along with her colleagues, started from Chandannagar for Bihar's Gaya for some professional assignment late on Sunday.

"We stopped at a petrol pump at the National Highway at Budbud in East Burdwan district to fill up the tank and the vehicle in which the drunken youths were travelling also reached there. At the petrol pump only, they started showering abuse towards her. But we ignored them and started towards our destination," he added.

However, the driver said that he then noticed the same vehicle in which the drunk youths were travelling was chasing his vehicle. "They chased us for a long distance till Panagarh. Suddenly, they tried to block our way by overtaking our vehicle and in that process, there was a collision between the two vehicles,” Sharma said.

In a desperate attempt to escape, Sharma changed his direction and tried to enter an adjacent service road beside a rice mill there, but lost control of the vehicle, which turned upside down after hitting a public urinal and then a scrap iron shop there.

"Madam died on the spot," Sharma said.

Chattopadhyay's colleague Mintu Mondal, who was also in the vehicle, said that the youth were in a totally drunken state and their approach was quite aggressive from the beginning. "They were showering unprintable abuses towards her. We ignored them to avoid further chaos. But we never thought that their car would hit ours to stop it," she added.

While the police had seized the youths' vehicle immediately after the incident on the National Highways at Panagarh in West Burdwan, they are yet to trace the accused and the victim's mother expressed her anguish.

"I want the accused youths to be severely punished. But it seems that the cops are trying to hide something or defend someone. Why, after so many hours, is not a single accused traced? Is there anything called administration in the state?" the victim’s mother Tanushree Chattopadhyay told media persons on Monday evening.

Incidentally, her husband, and the father of the victim, had died just nine months ago. And now the death of the daughter has totally left her shattered.

Meanwhile, police have come to learn that the seized vehicle is registered in the name of Bablu Yadav. The question now being raised is why police are unable to trace the accused youths even after tracking the owner of the vehicle.

The opposition leaders in the state have launched scathing attacks against the state administration over the tragedy. According to BJP’s state President and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar, women in Bengal are unsafe everywhere, be it hospitals or highways.

"A woman was harassed and chased by miscreants on the National Highways, leading to her tragic death. West Bengal has become a living hell for women. Every day, horrific crimes against women are reported, yet the government remains silent, shielding criminals instead of delivering justice," Majumdar said.

CPI-M state Secretary and party Politburo member Md Salim said that the police’s inability to track the accused youths as yet proves that the latter are influential and alleged that there is a deliberate attempt on the part of the administration to shield them.

--IANS

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