A man in his late 20s was killed in a road accident in Nadia’s Tehatta on Friday night while riding pillion on a bike with two other friends and streaming live footage on Facebook.
The live footage of about 50 seconds that displayed the tragic end was posted on his Facebook wall.
Police said the victim Nirmal Bairagya fell off tthe speeding motorcycle after it hit a bicycle near Betai on Krishnanagar-Karimpur road.
All three friends were rushed to Tehatta sub-divisional hospital, where Nirmal was declared dead.
Two other riders of the motorcycles suffered multiple injuries and one of them was later shifted to a Calcutta-based hospital. None wore helmets.
Police said that on Friday night Nirmal, a resident of Jitpur in Tehatta, with two other friends was going to Betai. Nirmal was riding pillion and streaming live on Facebook. But near the Betai market, the youth riding the bike failed to notice a cyclist crossing the road and hit him. All three fell to the ground.
“Nirmal had suffered critical injuries on his head and bleeding. He succumbed to injuries on the way to the hospital,” police said.
A police officer said youths often put their lives at risk for a few moments of fame on social media.
In a similar incident in Murshidabad’s Shamserganj in 2018, a teenager died when he was riding pillion to live-stream their journey on Facebook.
Jishan Sheikh,18, died when a truck hit the motorbike throwing the college student onto the road. Jishan died on the spot. His friend Amirul Islam, 18, who was driving the motorcycle, also fell on the road and suffered critical injuries.
In 2020, 24-year-old Chanchal Dhibar died under similar circumstances in West Burdwan’s Ukhra.
An employee of a private hospital in Durgapur, Dhibar was returning
home from work when he lost control of the bike while live-streaming his trip on Facebook. Dhibar fell on the ground fatally injuring himself.
He died on the way to the hospital
A police officer urged people not to talk on mobile phones or use any social media platform while driving any vehicle.
