A Kolkata Police civic volunteer died after an e-rickshaw hit her near Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Saturday afternoon.
Nupur Chattopadhayay, 52, succumbed to her injuries after police took her to a hospital nearby.
Nupur was recruited in 2018 as a civic volunteer with the city police and was recently transferred to Nabanna, where she used to be posted at the gates.
“Nupur joined her duty at 10am and was released in the afternoon. She was
on her way home when an e-rickshaw hit her from behind. The civic volunteer was rushed to a hospital, where she later died,” a senior officer of Howrah Police Commissionerate said.
“The e-rickshaw driver was arrested,” the officer said.
Eyewitnesses said Nupur was walking down an underpass near Nabanna around 2pm when the e-rickshaw came speeding from behind and hit her.
Nupur was flung away and her head hit the concrete wall of the subway.
She slumped and started bleeding profusely.
The police from nearby posts rushed to the spot.
Nupur was admitted to the hospital’s ICU.
Senior officers from Kolkata Police and Howrah Police Commissionerates reached the spot where Nupur was hit, and a hunt was launched to find the driver of the e-rickshaw.
He was subsequently arrested from a place near the spot where the accident took place, the police said.
A resident of Domjur, Nupur used to live with her mother at Shibpur because it is closer to Nabanna, where she was posted.
A section of residents of the area alleged that a majority of the e-rickshaw drivers drive dangerously around Mandirtala in Howrah.
A section of e-rickshaw drivers continues to pose a threat to lives despite police crackdowns in recent times.
Earlier in May, a 72-year-old woman died in Salt Lake after an e-rickshaw hit her
outside her home in the BL Block. Sikha Dutta had stepped out for a walk with her dog around 9.30pm when the e-rickshaw hit her.
These contraptions are largely unregulated, the police said.
The engineering of these e-rickshaws is flimsy and the brakes often do not work when the vehicle is at high speed.
But in many places like Howrah and some of the pockets on the fringes of Calcutta, these e-rickshaws are the only available mode of last-mile connectivity.