Siliguri, Sept. 4: A six-year-old boy was killed by a speeding bus this morning.

At 6.30 am, the night super (WB73A4547) from Nabadwip to Cooch Behar, hit a man, who was about to cross the road with his son. The incident took place near Hanuman Mandir at Mallaguri, 4 km from here.

Rohit, who was severely injured, was taken to the Siliguri district hospital at once. He died there later. The boy’s father Dadhi Mahato, a resident of Durgaguri village near Darjeeling More, was also injured.

Irate passengers and passers-by pelted stones at the bus and damaged it, police said. Later, the Pradhannagar police seized the vehicle and shifted it to the Tenzing Norgay Terminus. According to Alok Dasgupta, the officer-in-charge of Pradhannagar police station, driver Sujay Chandra Dey, 30, a resident of Tufanganj in Cooch Behar, has been arrested.

Forty-five-old Dadhi, who runs a tea stall near Mallaguri, said: “Early this morning, I took my son to the Hanuman Mandir area to have a cup of tea. After having my day’s first cup, I was on my way back home. I was carrying my son when suddenly the bus, which was on the wrong side of the road, hit me. My son was knocked down.”

The driver, who had a different story, argued that he was driving at normal speed, but Dadhi had come very close to the vehicle and tried to cross the road dangerously.

However, residents held the driver responsible for the accident and demanded exemplary punishment for him.

Dey, who has been a driver for the past seven years, confessed that he had hit a woman four years ago in Jalpaiguri in a similar incident. The woman too had died.

The incident has raised questions about the state of the traffic system in the city. “We never find any traffic policeman here to control speeding buses, which is why people get away with reckless driving. The death of Rohit should be an eye-opener for the police,” said Chania Sahani, a resident of Mallaguri.

The officer in charge of Siliguri traffic, Robin Thapa, has been told by deputy superintendent of police (traffic) J.B. Lepcha to give a report on the accident.

About allegations regarding the indifference of the traffic police, Thapa said: “The place where the accident occurred is not known as an accident-prone zone. We are supposed to look after the traffic system between 8 am and 8 pm.”

In July, a schoolgirl was run over by a speeding state bus at Jatiakhali near Fulbari in a similar manner.