Chhattisgarh: Five, including 3 teachers from Bengal killed in road accident

Kolkata: Five people, including three schoolteachers from West Bengal, were killed on Sunday when their Bolero SUV collided with a truck near Chilphi Valley in Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh.

The group of 10 people was travelling from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to Bilaspur when the accident occurred near Akalgharia turn.

The deceased have been identified as Poppy Burma (44), Anwesha Som (40), Parama Mitra Bhattacharya (42), Parama’s younger daughter Adrity (10), and the car’s driver. Five others sustained injuries and are undergoing treatment in hospital.

The group had set out for Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh on Monday. All three teachers had previously worked at Dankuni Shree Ramkrishna Vidyashram in Hooghly. Parama, a mathematics teacher, joined Binodini Girls’ High School in Dhakuria, Kolkata, in 2016 but maintained close ties with her former colleagues. She had taken her two daughters along on the trip.

According to police, the group was returning to Bilaspur to board a train to Kolkata after visiting Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Adrity was to celebrate her 11th birthday on Tuesday. Her father, Indrajit Bhattacharya of Jadavpur’s Bapuji Nagar, left for Bilaspur on Monday and plans to perform the last rites of his wife and younger daughter there. Their elder daughter remains in the ICU.

Among the injured are Ritabhas, son of Poppy Burma of Kalyani, and Supriti Maji, daughter of Anwesha Som. Som’s husband, Chiranjit Maji, a gynaecologist from Contai in East Midnapore, said he had spoken to their daughter and was arranging to travel to Chhattisgarh.

The other injured are Munmun Bag of Serampore, Hooghly, and her son Arnadeep.

Her husband, Abhijit Das, has also left for Bilaspur.