Radha Sewa at a nursing home on Friday.Gangtok,7 AUG: Five persons are feared dead, while another two were recovered gravely injured, after a Trax Cruiser passenger taxi plunged into the turbulent Teesta river near Sevoke this afternoon. The vehicle was coming to Siliguri from Sikkim along the NH-31A, when the incident took place at around 2.15 p.m.
According to the police, while negotiating a hairpin-bend on the highway at Andherijhora, Sevoke, the driver of the ill-fated Trax Cruiser, lost control and the vehicle fell some 250ft into the Teesta.
Two of the seven persons on board jumped out of the taxi, even as the vehicle plunged straight into the turbulent waters with the remaining five, including the driver.
Locals and police rescued the two passengers ~ Mr Kashinath Dubey (45) and a 40-year old lady Ms Radha Sewa ~ in a seriously injured condition and rushed them to a private nursing home in Siliguri. Both of them are residents of Sikkim.
According to the OC, Sevoke police outpost Mr Dipanjan Das, they have failed to locate the vehicle or any of the five missing passengers after conducting an initial search in the river.
“It is unlikely that any of them are alive, but we would continue the search,” said Mr Das.
The Sevoke police have now approached the private rafting team based at Teesta Bazar to carry out the search operation deep into the turbulent Teesta.
“It is already dusk but still we are requesting the rafters to start the operation with the help of floodlights, which we would arrange,” the police officer said.
