Woman crushed during idol immersion, 3 others drown across Bengal

Kolkata: The festive cheer of Durga Puja ended in horror for some as several accidents were reported during the immersion procession across Bengal. Renuka Sarkar, aged 31, a resident of Ballygunge Place, died in a tragic accident during an idol immersion in Kolkata. According to eye witnesses, the incident occurred when Renuka, a member of Adi Balak Sangha Durga Puja Committee, was seated atop a trailer carrying a Durga idol to the immersion ghat.

As the trailer moved near Sarat Bose Road, Renuka suddenly slipped and fell to the ground. In a horrifying turn of events, she was crushed and dragged for nearly 100 feet before bystanders could stop the vehicle and render aid. News of Renuka’s accident echoed the accident near Alipore Zoo on Thursday, where a man identified as Utsab Chattopadhyay fell and was fatally injured while sitting on the top of a lorry on the way to an immersion. Meanwhile, similar tragedies were reported from other districts of Bengal. In Bhadreswar, Hooghly, two young men- Aroop Ray (36) and Ankush Das (28)- drowned in the Ganga while attempting to immerse their community’s idol. Despite rescue operations, both remained missing till late Friday. In another incident at Uluberia, nine-year-old Subhradeep Samanta drowned in a pond after jumping in to retrieve the ornaments that slipped from the idol post-immersion. Two other boys were with him who got out of the pond and reached out to the locals as their friend was missing. The drowned boy was recovered from the pond and taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.