A student at South Point High School lights a candle on Monday for Jishnu Roy, the Class IX boy who was run over by a bus in front of Jadavpur police station last Saturday. Picture by Bibhas Lodh

The first seat in the left-hand corner of Class IX Section CD at South Point High School was empty on Monday.

Roll No. 23 was not in the classroom. And he would never return.

Jishnu Roy was run over at the perennially congested intersection of Prince Anwar Shah Road and Raja SC Mullick Road — in front of Jadavpur police station — on Saturday while returning home from Kasba after private tuition.

The 14-year-old’s mother had accompanied him to Kasba but didn’t stay because she had to visit his hospitalised grandfather, who was in a critical condition.

According to Jishnu’s friends, his grandfather’s ill health had been playing on his mind all day. Nobody will ever know but the teenager might have been distracted while crossing a road that is a pedestrian’s nightmare, police said.

They quoted witnesses as saying that Jishnu had tried to weave his way through traffic when he was caught between a bus stranded at the intersection and another turning left towards Dhakuria from the South City side. The second bus ran him over.

“Traffic was so heavy that a bus coming from the Jadavpur University side got stuck at the intersection even as the signal for the eastern flank turned green. In trying to go across the road at that very moment, the boy came under the wheels of the bus headed towards Dhakuria from Golf Green (route number 223),” said a senior officer in the traffic police department.

Friends who had met Jishnu on Saturday said the otherwise “vibrant boy” had been so anxious about his grandfather that he was inattentive and didn’t take notes during the physics-chemistry tuition. “He was unmindful throughout the tuition. He sat with his exercise book open but wasn’t taking notes, unlike on other days when he would be among the more active participants in any discussion,” recounted friend Moitreyo Sarkar.

Jishnu’s tuition ended at 5.15pm and the accident occurred around 5.50pm. It isn’t clear whether he intended taking an auto or a bus home to Netaji Nagar after crossing the road in front of Jadavpur police station.

Traffic police personnel took Jishnu to MR Bangur Hospital, where he was declared brought dead. Lake police station informed Jishnu’s family about the tragedy.

“An officer from Lake police station called my wife and asked for Amit Dutta. She presumed the caller had dialled the wrong number. The officer hung up too. We didn’t know that the message he wanted to convey was meant for us,” Jishnu’s uncle Amit Roy told Metro on Monday morning.

Family sources said the police might have randomly picked that number from the call register of Jishnu’s mobile phone. Lake police station finally got through to the teenager’s parents but didn’t tell them that he had died.

An officer said Jishnu’s parents were told of the tragedy after they arrived at MR Bangur hospital.

Jishnu was a popular boy not only among his circle of friends but also his seniors and juniors in school. On November 7, he won a gold medal in beatboxing, a form of vocal percussion, at an inter-school festival organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. “That was his first and last gold medal,” said friend Aritra Biswas, who had known him since they were in Montessori.

Jishnu loved snapback caps and shoes and he and his two closest friends, Aritra and Aniruddh Raman, would often go window shopping for shoes. “His shoe size was 13 and that wasn’t available in most stores. He used to wear a pair of Puma shoes most of the time, though he had a great collection, including Adidas and Nike,” Aritra said.

He had last spoken to Jishnu on Thursday and football was the topic. Jishnu was to be the vice-captain at an inter-section football competition this week.

Apart from football and beatboxing, Jishnu was good at dance. He and Aniruddh would dance hip-hop.

The trio of friends would also do wall graffiti together and Aniruddh remembers Jishnu gifting him spray paint on his birthday. “The three of us would save money to buy spray paint and we had planned to do some meaningful graffiti on environment soon. That will never happen without him,” Aniruddh said.

Jishnu was taken to the crematorium in his favourite Lee Cooper denims, yellow T-shirt and red Nike cap.

WHO WAS JISHNU ROY?

Age: 14

Student of: Class IX at South Point High School

Passion: Football, cricket, hip hop, graffiti art

Favourites: Snapback caps and shoes (size 13)