A 21-year-old man, riding pillion on his friend’s motorcycle, was flung off the Parama flyover before he fell on the road 40 feet below around 3.05am on Friday.
Subham Kumar, the pillion rider, died, while his friend Ankit Kumar, also 21, was relatively less injured.
Ankit has purportedly told police officers that he was intoxicated. The two, residents of VIP Nagar in Anandapur in east Kolkata, were wearing helmets, the police said.
The presence of a motorbike on the flyover after 10pm has raised questions as two-wheelers are not allowed on the flyover between 10pm and 6am.
Earlier this week, the police had also notified that both flanks of the flyover would be closed to traffic between 11.30pm and 6am for a few weeks as the structure would be painted.
The police said vehicles carrying paint materials were allowed on the Park Circus-bound flank on Friday as the paint work was in progress on the EM Bypass-bound flank.
There were guardrails at both ends of the flyover. But as vehicles carrying paint materials were being allowed on the Park Circus-bound flank, the guardrails had some gaps in between. “The motorcycle must have slipped through a gap,” an officer said.
Ankit, who survived the accident, purportedly told the police that they had taken the flyover from the side of the Ruby crossing. “We were heading towards the AJC Bose Road flank and I was about to take a left turn. To slow down, I applied a brake but I accidentally pressed the brake of the front wheel and the rear wheel got disbalanced,” an officer said quoting Ankit.
Ankit skidded with the bike on the flyover, while Subham fell on Circus Avenue below.
Biker killed
Thakurpukur: A 32-year-old youth riding a motorbike died after an unidentified vehicle hit the two-wheeler on Diamond Harbour Road on the southwestern fringes of Kolkata on Thursday night, police said.
The police identified the biker as Rintu Samanta, a resident of Hooghly.
He was taken to Vidyasagar State General Hospital where he was declared dead, police said.
Reporting by our staff reporter