DINHATA (COOCH BEHAR), July 31: Hundreds of people were waiting for him from this morning at Dinhata. At last he came, though in a coffin. When the lorry that was carrying his body entered Dinhata town at about 1-30 pm, numerous people came out from their residences and offices and stood beside the streets to have a glance of Shubhankar.  A number of motorcyclists escorted the convoy including the lorry to his residence at Saha-palli in Gosani Road. 

After arrival at the residence his parents, sister, relatives and neighbours broke down to tears. His mother was fainting now-and-then. Within a few minuets the body was sent to the crematorium at Hradbari-ghat for performing of last rites. The schools of Dinhata including the two where he studied (Gopalnagar MSS High School and Soni Devi Jain High School) were declared closed. The shopkeepers along Gosani Road too pulled their shutters down to express their sympathy to the bereaved family. 

Dinhata MLA Mr Ashok Mandal, District and Sessions Judge of Cooch Behar, Mr Nripendra Nath Ghosh, Dinhata SDO Mr Kajal Kumar Bandyopadhyay, senior police officials, government employees, teachers and students – all gathered at his house when the body arrived there. His relatives left Purulia with the body on yesterday evening after post-mortem at Purulia Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital. Due to summer heat the body got decomposed and it was evident from the odour that was coming out from the coffin. Two friends of Shubhankar too came from Jadavpur University to attend the funeral. 

Dinhata SDO Mr Kajal Kumar Bandyopadhyay said that they got no official information over the sad demise of Shubhankar Saha. The police initiated a probe and that may reveal the truth, he hoped. On the otherhand the incident turned a topic of hot discussion among the residents of Dinhata. They are eager to know whether it was a case of mere accident or a well-planned murder. 

Shubhankar Saha (24) stood second in Dinhata sub-division in the Madhyamik examination in 1998. He appeared from Gopalnagar MSS High School. In Higher Secondary examination too he secured star marks. After qualifying in the Joint Entrance examination he studied B Pharm in Jadavpur University. Then he was studying M Pharm in that university. 

Shubhankar visited his residence in Dinhata town in last June on the occasion of Kali Puja in his family. His father Mr Sankar Saha is the head clerk in Dinhata Court. The other members in the family are his grandmother, his mother Mrs Madhuri Saha and sister Moumita. Last Wednesday he told his parents over phone from Kolkata that he will go to Digha for excursion. He probably smelt that his parents might deny allowing him to go to Purulia for trekking. 

Since the family got the sad news no one went to the kitchen to light the oven. The neighbours tried in vain to agree them to take tea or food. Shubhankar’s two maternal uncles (Mama and Meso) had left for Kolkata on Saturday to bring the lifeless body that came today. []

PHOTO : Large number of people gathered when the lorry arrived with the body of Shubhankar Saha. In Dinhata on Monday noon.