A three-and-a-half-year-old boy who was returning home after visiting a doctor with his father fell off his father’s cycle and came under the wheels of a car on East Topsia Road around 8.30pm on Friday.
On Saturday, police said it was still not clear if Aryan Sheikh fell off the cycle because of the car driving recklessly, too close to them, or if he was flung off because of the cratered road.
Aryan was sitting in front of his father on the cycle and was apparently safe between his father’s arms.
There are no CCTV cameras close to the spot and so, the sequence of events is still not clear, an officer said.
The car fled and was yet to be traced till Saturday evening.
Aryan was declared dead at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. His father escaped unhurt.
The road runs through a crowded neighbourhood.
A case has been registered with Pragati Maidan police station under sections of causing death due to negligence and rash and negligent driving against the driver of the four-wheeler that fled.
Thousands of people use bicycles as their only mode of transport in the city.
The lockdown restrictions, fear of infection while travelling in public transport and rising fuel prices have forced many more to opt for cycles in the last year-and-a-half.
Aryan’s father, who does petty jobs for a living, cannot afford anything other than a bicycle.
He purportedly told the police that he could not understand how his son fell while he was cycling back home.
“He is traumatised and not very clear in expressing himself. All he could say was a ‘big car’ drove too close to his cycle and before he realised or could react to the situation, his son slipped between his arms and fell on the road. The next second, the child came under the wheels of that car,” said an officer of the traffic department.
The fatal squad of the traffic department has taken over the investigation of the case.