Gangtok/Siliguri, Oct 20: The bodies of the five tourists from Calcutta, who had died in an accident on Jawharlal Nehru Road in Sikkim yesterday, were handed over to the relatives who took them to Siliguri in the evening.

The five injured tourists from another family were shifted to a Siliguri nursing home during the day.

The tourists were returning from a trip to Changu and Baba Mandir near Nathu-la when their vehicle had skidded 500ft off the road.

Abhisek Mitra, the nephew of Deepali Dhar, the lone surviving member of the Dhar family, reached Gangtok with seven other relatives to claim the bodies. Abhisek’s mother Shefali and her sister Deepali, who lost her husband Ashis, daughter Debparna, her father-in-law Rakhal and her parents Pushpa and Satyen Biswas. Deepali had not joined the family on the fatal tour.

“My aunt is in shock and uncontrollable ever since she was informed of the news,” Abhisek told The Telegraph. “Debparna, my cousin, was a brilliant student of engineering. She had also bagged a national scholarship.”

The Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim made the arrangements for taking the bodies to Calcutta by road and also bore the transportation cost. “Since the tourists were the guests of our state, they should not feel that they had no one in Sikkim,” said Palzor Lachungpa, the association president.

In Siliguri, Subhas Dutta, his wife Suparna and daughter Trisha, residents of Madhyamgram, and Bijoy Guha and his wife Parna, residents of Dhakuria, are under treatment in the nursing home.

“We got the phone call from Subhas at 4pm yesterday. Although he was injured, he could manage to talk to us from Gangtok,” said Sukanta Majumdar, a relative of the Duttas who works in the Madhyamgram Municipality. “Right now, we are concentrating on their treatment and have no plans to shift them to Calcutta,” he said at the nursing home in Pradhannagar.

Nitish Das, the doctor who examined the injured, said the condition of Suparna and Trisha is serious. “While the mother has deep cuts on her chest and broken ribs, the daughter has broken her right femur. They have been kept under observation. We will conduct some tests tomorrow.” The other three has not been so serious, the doctor added.