A 59-year-old junior mechanic of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, who was working on a water supply pipeline near Dhakuria, died after being hit by a car on Wednesday morning.
Lakshmi Kanta Mandal, a resident of Joynagar in South 24-Parganas district, who was due to retire from the KMC next year, had been working on a ferrule in front of a house on Maharaja Tagore Road around 11am when a private car hit him.
A ferrule is a device that regulates the quantity of water that each house gets from the main water supply line of the KMC. Only water department employees are eligible to handle ferrules.
“The KMC mechanic suffered multiple injuries. He was taken to MR Bangur Hospital, where he was declared dead,” said a police officer.
The cops impounded the vehicle and identified the accused driver as Prafulla Kumar Jana.
“We are analysing the footage of a CCTV camera installed nearby to find out the circumstances that led to the accident,” said an officer of the fatal squad in the city police.
Sources in the police said Jana had claimed that he failed to realise that Mandal was working near the road and apparently lost control of the vehicle when he finally spotted Mandal.
“Jana has claimed innocence. We have seized the vehicle and sent it for a mechanical test,” the officer added.
A case under section 304A and 279 of the Indian Penal Code that deals with causing death due to negligence and rash and negligent driving was started against Jana.
The charges, if proven before the court, could lead to a maximum punishment of two years of imprisonment.