The Bolero after it had come to rest at the bottom of the gorge. Picture by Prabin Khaling

Gangtok, June 8: Four persons died and three were injured when a car taking a group of young men and women home from a party at a night club in the capital skidded off the road in Tadong and fell 300ft below around 12.30am on Sunday.

The Mahindra Bolero (registration number SK 02 A1090) was negotiating a turn when it went off the road and tumbled down the hillside at M.P. Golai, 4km from here. The victims are all aged between 20 and 25.

The four who died have been identified as Passang Tshering Bhutia (21), Anu Pradhan (22), Rajni Tamang (23) and Raveena Tamang (20). Police said Bhutia, a student, was a resident of Dikling near Pakyong in East Sikkim. The other three — all of them women — hailed from Jalipool near Ranipul, around 10km from Gangtok. Rajni and Raveena were sisters.

The three men who were injured — Khagendra Khulal, Sameer Chettri and Manju Pradhan — have been admitted to Central Referral Hospital at 5th Mile, Tadong, in serious condition. Sameer Chettri was reportedly driving the vehicle when the mishap took place. The vehicle belonged to a relative of the dead man.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that Bhutia, Khulal, Chettri and Pradhan met the women at the night club and offered to drop them home. They were on their way to Jalipool when the mishap occurred.

The police are trying to find out if drunken driving and over-speeding were the causes of the accident. A case has been registered at the Ranipul police station against Sameer Chettri under Sections 279 (rash and negligent driving) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC.

Residents of the area said it had been drizzling at M.P. Golai at that time. By the time the rescue operation began, it was raining heavily.

Soon after receiving news of the accident, the rescue team of Sikkim Police along with men from the Ranipul police station went to the site. Several residents of the area came out to help them, braving the darkness and the rain.

“The bodies were strewn all over the place. The rescue team worked till early this morning to bring the bodies up and rush the injured to the hospital,” said a resident.

Two hours before the accident, a Maruti van with registration number SK 04 3421 had also gone off the road at the same spot and fallen 100ft below. The two occupants had escaped with minor injuries. The police said over-speeding was the cause of the accident. The vehicle was said to be returning to Pakyong after having taken a passenger to Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital.

When the Bolero went off the road, it hit the van caught amid the trees on the hillside before tumbling further down, said the police.