The Roy residence in Garia. Picture by Amit Datta

Engineering student Atreya Roy was flung off a motorcycle and crushed under the wheels of a Matador while returning home from a party early on Monday.

Atreya, 20, was riding pillion with friend Shubhrojyoti Roy at the wheel when a speeding Matador hit their motorcycle while trying to overtake it from the left near Rathtala, in Sonarpur, around 5.30am. As the two-wheeler rammed into a roadside tree, both riders were thrown off.

“As Atreya fell to the ground, the wheels of the Matador rolled over him. Shubhrojyoti was injured, too, but he was lucky not to be crushed,” said Debajyoti Roy, a friend following them on another motorcycle.

Atreya, a third-year student of Netaji Subhas Engineering College in Garia, died on the spot.

Shubhrojyoti, a second-year engineering student, was admitted to a private hospital in Dhakuria in a critical condition. “He is recovering but not out of danger. He will be under observation for at least 24 hours,” a doctor said.

The youths were headed for Garia, where they live, after spending the night at a friend’s house in Rajpur.

Police said none of the boys involved in the accident was wearing a helmet. “But the Matador driver is to blame for the mishap. We have asked all police stations to look out for the vehicle and the driver,” said Ajey Ranade, the superintendent of police of South 24-Parganas.

Atreya’s father Tapas Roy works in a private company and mother Tapasi teaches in a school. The couple had moved into their first-floor apartment at Pranabananda Nagar in Garia along with Atreya, his sister and their grandmother six years ago.

Numbed by shock, Tapasi didn’t utter a word till late on Monday. Atreya’s 80-year-old grandmother was unaware of the tragedy that befell the family on Mahalaya.

A relative said the Roys would like their privacy to be respected and requested that no photographs of the grieving family members be taken.

Arun Ghosh, a friend, said Atreya was an intelligent and amiable young man. “He was very serious about his studies and very simple in his ways.”