30-year-old Pratima Chettri from Mangan, North Sikkim, reportedly fell to death from a Bridge near North Sikkim’s Seven Sister Falls yesterday. According to the reports, the fall was almost 20 feet, and the incident took place between 11:00 PM – 12:00 Midnight yesterday, April 30. The incident is said to have taken place while Pratima was commuting from Mangan to Gangtok with one Ganesh Rai who reportedly works at Mangan Police Station. The family of the deceased have not yet accepted that the incident was an accident as they have been told, and have alleged foul play.
The father of the deceased, Kumar Chettri, speaking to Sikkim Chronicle has expressed utter dissatisfaction in the facts he has been presented with regarding his daughter’s untimely demise. He appeals to the authorities and the police department to investigate this matter and bring justice to his daughter.
“I wasn’t there at home but I was told that my daughter and Ganesh Rai were leaving for Gangtok (on a scooter) during which my daughter was said to be dead after falling from the bridge near Phodong and that it was an accident. Now there’s no harm that befell the driver who was driving the scooty, there’s no damage on the scooty, there are no scratches as such. But my daughter all of sudden, from the middle of the bridge, fell 20 feet below where she crashed on the rocks and died on the spot,” Kumar recollects the facts presented to him.
Pratima who was preparing to be hired in the Police department, met her sudden demise while she was just days away shy of grabbing her official recruitment order. “I was at Rabongla when I was notified of the incident, I was visiting for a friend’s child’s birthday since it was a holiday. My daughter had submitted all her documents and was awaiting her offial (recruitment) order and she was on her way to Gangtok to buy some work and casual clothes when I was phoned about the accident” Kumar says.
He adds, “I haven’t collected her belongings, she had her documents that haven’t been recovered by me, her phone is ringing but I have no idea where it is. I was phoned I would be summoned at the Phodong PS and after, when I came to Sokeythang Hospital (Gangtok), I got to see her corpse at around 4:30 AM.” He further adds, “We haven’t received Pratima’s body and we are waiting for them to finish with the post-mortem after which I will take her body to Mangan.”
Demanding justice Kumar says, “I just want to demand justice for my daughter and request the police department to give her true, true justice.”