Kol teacher, daughter, 3 more die in C'garh crash

Kolkata: Three school teachers — Parama Mitra Bhattacharjee from Jadavpur, and Anwesha Som and Poppy Burma from Hooghly's Dankuni — died when the SUV they were travelling in rammed a truck near Akalgharia village in Kabirdham district, Chhattisgarh, on Sunday evening. Bhattacharjee's younger daughter Aditri, who would have turned 12 on Tuesday, also lost her life in the accident, as did the driver. Bhattacharjee's elder daughter Adrika is in a critical condition at a hospital in Raipur.

After visiting Kanha National Park, the group was headed to Bilashpur station to catch a Kolkata-bound train when they met with the accident. There were 10 people in the car, of whom five died on the spot. Two of the injured were in a critical condition till last reports came in.

According to family sources, the victims went to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for the puja vacation . Bhattacharjee, a resident of Bapujinagar at Jadavpur who taught mathematics at Binodini Girls' School in Dhakuria, went on the trip with her two daughters and three teachers from Dankuni Sree Ramkrishna Vidyashram Girls' High School, where she used to teach earlier. Munmun Bagh, a mathematics teacher at the Dankuni school, is being treated at a hospital.

Bhattacharjee's husband Indrajit reached the Raipur hospital on Monday. "The accident happened around 4.30 pm. I lost my wife and younger daughter while my elder daughter is battling for her life. They went to Madhya Pradesh on Saptami and then moved to Chhattisgarh," Indrajit told TOI over phone.

At Bhattacharjee's house, Aditri's grandparents Smritiranjan (79) and Manjushree (75) mourned the child's death with a new dress in hand. Manjushree said, "This new dress was bought for her birthday. Before going on the trip, she told me to prepare her favourite dish on her birthday. Everything is shattered now."

A pall of gloom descended on the two schools that lost their teachers. Susmita Basak, a teacher at Binodini Girls' High School, said, "We came to know about the tragedy on Monday morning, and we are yet to come to terms with the fact that Parama and one of her daughters are no more. She was a soft-spoken teacher loved by students. She was transferred to our school in 2016."

Baisakhi Datta Roy, headmistress of Dankuni Sree Ramkrishna Vidyashram Girls' High School, said, "Our life science teacher Annesha, and mathematics teachers Poppy and Munmun went on the trip during puja vacation with Bhattacharjee, who was our former teacher. We lost two of our colleagues, and now we are praying for the recovery of the one who is in hospital."

(With inputs from Madan Modan Samanta)