Behrampore, June 12: Barely ten minutes after a girl left home riding pillion on her father’s motorcycle to get admission to a college in Behrampore, she was crushed under the wheels of a government bus this morning. The vehicle was set ablaze by the local people.

While Mali Sarkar (19), died on the spot clutching the form she had filled in for a BA course in Behrampore Girls’ College, her father Haradhan Sarkar (48) fractured his right hand and received head injuries. He was admitted to Behrampore New General Hospital.

Police said Mali and her father had slipped from the motorcycle on the Behrampore-Banjetia road, about 200km from Calcutta, when it was hit by another two-wheeler coming from the opposite direction.

“We are yet to trace the bike owner who had hit Sarkar’s vehicle. Preliminary investigation suggested that the road full of craters had contributed to the accident,” said deputy superintendent of police Santa Mitra.

“As we fell on the road, a CSTC bus heading towards Siliguri rammed into us. I saw my daughter getting stuck in the rear wheels of the bus. But I could not do anything,” said Haradhan, a clerk in the district magistrate’s office, from his hospital bed.

Ranjit Biswas (32), who owns a tea stall beside the road, came running with other people.

“While some of us had to push the bus a little bit to take the girl’s mangled body out of the wheels, others arranged for a rickshaw van to rush Haradhan to the hospital,” said Biswas.

As the news spread, agitated students from three educational institutions — Murshidabad Engineering College, Murshidabad Institute of Technology and Industrial Training Institute — in the same locality rushed to the spot and started pelting the bus with stones.

More people joined the mob by that time and set the bus on fire.

Residents also rained brickbats on another bus, owned by the South Bengal State Corporation, that was plying at that time.

A section of the people later blocked the road for half an hour demanding the arrest of the driver who had fled after the accident.

“When we reached the spot around 11.30, we saw the bus in flames and people blocking the road. We immediately called in the fire brigade and dispersed the mob without using force,” said an officer.

Suboj Saha, a student of Murshidabad Institute of Technology, said residents were so angry that nobody stopped them from going on the rampage.”

Doctors said the condition of Haradhan, who has 12 stitches, is stable.