Bivash, who had been transferred to Tehatta Sub-divisional Hospital from the School of Tropical Medicine three months ago, lived in an apartment in Dum Dum with his wife and daughters. His ancestral home is at Machlandapur.

Lily was a resident of Machlandapur, too.

Niharendu is from Chotobazar in Barasat, North 24-Parganas.

Tushar Kanti Pathak, who was in the Sumo and survived the fall, was too perplexed to react. “Suddenly, our vehicle went off the road and moved downwards. It rammed into some trees or bushes and halted. I somehow came outside. After some time, some local people came and helped us,” he said at Siliguri District Hospital.

The passengers in the Xylo reached Siliguri on Tuesday evening and were taken to Mainak Tourist Lodge.

“The state tourism department has made arrangements for them to stay at the lodge and also arranged a vehicle for them to travel home. We were there to extend all necessary help to them. Ambulances have been arranged to carry the coffins,” said Debashis Maitra, president, Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators’ Association.

Professors at the School of Tropical Medicine, where Bivash had been a post-graduate trainee, remembered him as a “sincere student and hard worker”.

“We are saddened by Bivash’s death. He was an ex-student here and had passed with distinction. I would always be at ease whenever he was part of the team at the critical care unit. He was soft spoken and well behaved,” said Bibhuti Saha, acting director of the institute.

Pathak had done his MBBS degree at Bankura Medical College and Hospital.

Siliguri/Gangtok/Calcutta: A doctor and his parents and two of their relatives, all from the northern fringe of Calcutta, died when the SUV they were travelling in fell into a 100ft-deep gorge at Tinzerbong in West Sikkim on Monday night.

The five victims are Bivash Pathak, 42, the doctor; his parents Brojendranath, 71, and Ashalata, 61; Lily Pathak, 52, a cousin of Bivash; and Niharendu Biswas, 41, a relative of the Pathaks.

Niharendu’s brother Pratap and Lily’s husband Tushar Kanti Pathak were injured in the accident.

Ashim Rai, who was driving the Mahindra Xylo, was injured, too.

The dead and the injured were part of a 14-member group from various places on the northern fringe of Calcutta.

“A group of tourists from North 24-Parganas in Bengal was on a trip to Sikkim. They had gone to Kaluk in West Sikkim from Namchi in two vehicles. The first SUV passed the stretch at Tinzerbong but the second vehicle fell into a gorge. Five persons died on the spot,” a senior police officer in Sikkim said.

“An investigation has been started. Officers will talk to the driver to know the sequence of events leading to the accident.”

Rai is being treated at a hospital in Namchi. The other two injured have been shifted to Siliguri District Hospital.

Sources in the tourism industry in Sikkim said that though roads in the West district of the Himalayan state were in good shape, visibility often became a problem because of fog.

“Local people rushed to the spot and tried to rescue the passengers in the car. Then the police came and sent the bodies to Geyzing, the headquarters of the West district,” a source said.

Bivash’s wife Sumana and their two daughters, along with some other members of the group, were in the other vehicle, a Tata Sumo.

“We hired two vehicles to visit Kaluk. Our two daughters were with me in one of the cars. Bivash was in the other car with his parents and other relatives. The car in which Bivash was travelling was behind us while we were returning from Kaluk,” Sumana recounted.

“It was around 8pm and visibility was not poor. Our driver was in a hurry and at times driving recklessly, even while negotiating sharp bends. I thought he was experienced enough to drive down hilly roads at night, so I did not warn him.”

Sumana was frequently looking back to check on the Xylo.

“At one point the headlight of the other car was not visible. I thought the driver had slowed down. I asked our driver to slow down, too, but even after several minutes the Xylo did not catch up with us. I asked our driver to make a

U-turn and drive towards Kaluk. After going a few hundred metres, we discovered that my husband’s car had rolled down a gorge and got stuck in a bamboo grove. We screamed for help… I fainted,” she said.

Friends and relatives of the family in Calcutta rushed to Siliguri on Tuesday morning. Arrangements had been made to bring the bodies back to Machlandapur.

Bivash’s cousin Lily with her husband Tusher Kanti Pathak. Lily died in the accident, while her husband was injured Sourced by the Telegraph

Bivash Pathak with wife Sumana. (picture taken from Bivash’s Facebook profile)