A 54-year-old woman was killed after being run over by a private bus while crossing the road near Prachi Cinema Hall in Kolkata’s Sealdah area on Saturday morning, police said. The bus and its driver were detained after local residents stopped the vehicle, and investigators have begun examining CCTV footage from the area.
The victim, identified as Mahima D’Costa, lived on Gobinda Khatik Road in Tangra. According to her son Bappa D’Costa, she had been experiencing cold-related health problems and regularly visited Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital for diabetes treatment.
Mahima had gone to the hospital on Saturday morning for a medical consultation. After seeing the doctor, she crossed the road to buy medicines and was returning towards the other side when she came under the wheels of a private bus operating on the Baburhat–Paikpara route, according to the report.
The bus reportedly continued after striking the woman, but people in the area managed to stop it. Traffic police personnel on duty detained the driver and handed him over to officers from Muchipara police station. Police have also taken the bus into custody as part of the investigation.
Investigators are reviewing CCTV footage from around the accident site to establish how the collision occurred. They are examining whether the woman was hit while crossing the road, whether the incident took place amid competition between buses, or whether it occurred as she was getting off the vehicle. The police are also seeking to determine the precise movement of the bus and the woman immediately before the crash.
The incident highlights the risks faced by pedestrians around busy transport corridors in central Kolkata, where roads are used simultaneously by buses, private vehicles and people crossing between commercial and medical destinations. The report, however, does not establish whether a traffic violation or bus-racing was responsible for the death.
Mahima’s body was scheduled to be handed over to her family after a post-mortem examination on Sunday. Her husband, Ratan D’Costa, told the newspaper that she had called her son to say she would return home and eat rice after buying the medicines. Police action and the CCTV examination remain the next steps in the case.
