Truck hits auto-rickshaw, police volunteer, minor girl killed

A civic police volunteer and a minor girl  were killed in a road accident while returning from a rescue operation at Rathtala in South 24-Parganas on Sunday night. 

Police said a truck hit the auto-rickshaw in which a team  consisting of police officers, constables and civic police volunteers were returning to Sonarpur police station after rescuing a minor girl from Patharpratima area. 

Acting on a tip off, they went to Patharpratima to conduct a raid and they were successful in their operation. They took an auto-rickshaw to conduct the raid as they were undercover and were wearing plainclothes. It was around 11.30 pm when they reached Rathtala near Sonarpur and a speeding truck hit their auto-rickshaw from behind.  The locals got the information much later as the incident took place at an isolated region. The minor girl and a civic police volunteer, identified as Anupam Naskar  were declared brought dead when they reached the hospital. The other four were injured which included sub-inspector of Sonarpur police station Tirthapratim Basu, a village police Prosenjit Sapui, a lady homeguard Ranu Chakraborty and driver of the auto-rickshaw Sushanta Halder. All four were admitted to the hospital and are undergoing necessary treatment. 

The truck driver, however, managed to flee with his vehicle. The auto-rickshaw was also damaged. A police officer said that a probe has been initiated and the driver of the truck will be arrested soon. “It seems that the driver of the speeding truck failed to manage the vehicle after taking the turn and hit the auto-rickshaw,” the police officer said.