A Class IX boy on his way to tuition died after being hit on his head by the fork-like arm of a payloader engaged in repairing a pothole-riddled road in Bansdroni on the southern fringes of Calcutta on Wednesday.

Soumyo Sil, 15, was standing next to a coconut tree after having parked his bicycle when the payloader scraped a trunk and hit his head around 7am. The accident happened near Dinesh Nagar auto stand, around 3.5km from Netaji Subhas Road.

Residents erupted in rage, protesting the administration’s alleged reluctance to repair the 2.5km stretch that has been in a dilapidated condition since 2016 when a sewage and drainage development project started in the area. The road is the only link to Calcutta.

Soumyo Sil Sourced by The Telegraph

Hundreds of people gheraoed the officer in charge of Patuli police station, heckled him and abused him and forced him to stand in a slushy pothole for over six hours. OC Tirthankar Dey was rescued by a group of Trinamool Congress workers. Five persons have been arrested for “instigating” a mob. Among those arrested was Ruby Mondal, a local BJP activist.

Wednesday’s civic work was “a shoddy patchwork” undertaken by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to level the road before the festive season, residents said.

A preliminary investigation and the accounts of bystanders suggest the payloader was removing bituminous chunks when its arm scraped against the coconut tree and hit the boy who was apparently hidden from the driver’s view, the police said.

“The driver of the payloader fled after the accident. Efforts are on to trace him,” said Bidisha Kalita, deputy commissioner of police, South Suburban Division. “An investigation has been initiated against those who allegedly held an officer hostage for several hours,” she added.

Soumyo’s tuition teacher Santos Roy heard a thud and rushed out of his house to see the teen lying on the ground with blood gushing from his head.

“Soumyo’s friend, who was with him, said the front arm of the payloader first hit the tree and then the boy’s head. By the time I came out and saw him, he was lying on the ground, bleeding from the head,” Roy told The Telegraph.

A student of Gangapuri Siksha Sadan High School, Soumyo was a resident of Boral. His father is a rickshaw puller who ferries people in and around Bansdroni, often through the cratered road where his son was killed.

The accident highlighted the angst of a neighbourhood that has been protesting in vain for years against the administration’s “apathy”.

The agitators, who vandalised the payloader, demanded that local councillor Anita Kar Majumdar visit the accident site but the Trinamool leader appeared reluctant.

Calls and text messages to Majumdar by this newspaper went unanswered.

Police commissioner Manoj Verma visited Bansdroni police station, where the arrested persons were taken, at night.

The accident snowballed into a daylong unrest that continued till late on Wednesday.

An accident was waiting to happen given the condition of the road. How long does it take to complete sewage and drainage work?” said a resident of Ward 113.

Abhijit Mukherjee, mayor-in-council, roads, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, said: “The underground sewage and drainage work is being developed by the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP) because of which the road is in a poor condition. Unless the project ends, we cannot repair the road.”

Mayor Firhad Hakim told reporters that the contractor (under whose supervision the payloader worked) has been called.

“We will see whose negligence it was and a case will be registered. We are beside the family of the dead student,” said Hakim.

This part of Ward 113 is a low-lying border area that was laden with bricks and bituminous chunks for the patchy repair work undertaken by the corporation.

A special force from the south suburban division went around 12.30pm to control the situation but got involved in a scuffle with the protesters. Senior officers intervened and asked the force to step back.

A senior police officer later said that the force on the ground was asked to show restraint because “emotions were running high”.

Later in the evening, a team of police officers led by the rank of assistant police commissioner reached the spot to speak to the residents and hear the grievances, including alleged police excesses in removing the mob during the protest.