Asok Kumar Dasgupta, 61, a retired college teacher, was crushed by a tram after he tripped and fell on the tracks at Mudiali, off the intersection of Lake Avenue and SP Mukherjee Road.

The accident occurred around 12.45 pm on Tuesday. The tram was headed towards Tollygunge from Howrah.

Police said a similar accident had occurred on the spot a few months ago, when a woman had been the victim.

Former head of the department of physics at Behrampore Girls? College, Dasgupta had reached the city barely an hour earlier from Behrampore and was on his way to meet his ailing daughter-in-law.

With a box of cake held in one hand and a briefcase in the other, Dasgupta had not noticed the tram, on route no. 30, trundling towards him, when he tripped on the tracks and fell, witnesses said.

The tram could not stop in time and crushed Dasgupta to death. As the body got caught between the wheels, the tram slipped off the tracks and came to a halt a few feet away.

An identity card was recovered from Dasgupta?s body. Later in the day, his son Anupam identified him.

Police rushed the body to MR Bangur Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Tollygunge police have started a case of rash and negligent driving against the absconding driver of the tram under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code.