Three contractual workers died and 15 others got injured in a road accident on NH27 in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.

The deceased are Suman Sheikh, 33, Hussain Sheikh, 36, and Kamal Mal 33. All of them were employed by a private agency at a railway construction site in the district.

Sources said that on Tuesday morning, 17 workers, who used to stay near the Teesta bridge on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town, were going to the site in a carriage hauled by a tractor.

“The tractor was moving along the wrong alignment of the highway. As it reached Ulladabri in Maynaguri, a truck coming from the opposite direction rammed into the tractor and carriage,” said a police officer.

The 17 workers and the tractor driver, all of whom are from Murshidabad district, suffered injuries. As they were rushed to the super-specialty hospital in Jalpaiguri, doctors pronounced one dead while two others succumbed to their injuries soon after.

“Among the injured, three are critical and have been shifted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The remaining 12 are under treatment at the super-specialty hospital here,” said a source.

Police have seized both vehicles. The truck driver has been taken into custody.

Soldier’s mishap death

Anjan Roy, 30, a jawan of the Indian army, died on Tuesday morning in Jalpaiguri district after he was hit by a dump truck. Sources said he was posted in Madhya Pradesh and recently came home on leave to Prasannanagar of Belakoba. On Tuesday morning, he had gone out for a walk when the truck hit him from behind.

He was rushed to the super-specialty hospital in Jalpaiguri where doctors pronounced him dead.

As the news spread, angry residents blocked the local road, burnt tyres and shouted slogans. Some of them ransacked a police vehicle. The blockade, which continued for around seven hours, lifted after MLA Khageswar Roy assured people that the movement of vehicles like dump trucks would be restricted by installing height bars.

4 held with rare reptile in Siliguri

Siliguri: A Baikunthapur forest division team found a red sand boa in Siliguri on Monday night and arrested four persons in this connection.

Sources said the red sand boa, a near-threatened species in the red data list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was brought from Bihar and was to be smuggled to Nepal.

“The four-foot-long red sand boa (Eryx johnii) was found at Shastri Nagar, ward 41. The four persons there could not justify that they legally had the snake. We suspect they are members of a racket that smuggles animals and animal body parts,” said a forester.

Those arrested are Arindam Sarkar, Pasang Lama Sherpa, Anavar Mian and Jagadish Chandra Roy. The first three are of Siliguri and Roy is from Cooch Behar. They were allegedly supposed to hand over the boa for Rs 15 lakh. The snake is in demand in Nepal and Korea, a forester said, adding they shared the case with Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.

BINITA PAUL