An 18-year-old student died in West Bengal's Nadia district on Friday night after her hair got caught in the generator of an engine van while she was returning from a Kali Puja idol immersion, police said on Saturday.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

The deceased was identified as Diya Sarkar, a resident of the Bapuji Nagar area of Badkulla under Taherpur police station. She was a Class 11 student at a local high school, according to the reports.

A Kali Puja immersion ceremony had been organised on Friday night in the Bapuji Nagar Purandarpur area of Badkulla-II Gram Panchayat. After the idol was immersed at Gariapota ghat, participants began returning in vehicles, and it was during that return journey that her untied hair got inside the generator, reports said. She died on the spot.

Vehicles seized, negligence being probed

Taherpur police reached the spot later that night and sent the body to Shaktinagar District Hospital, where a post-mortem examination was being conducted on Saturday. Police have seized all the vehicles used for the immersion, including the engine van, for examination.

Source: Urban Acres (citing Anandabazar)

Investigators are examining how the accident happened and whether negligence or a safety defect contributed to the death. No one had been detained or arrested in connection with the incident at the time of the latest reports.

Reports noted a similar recent accident in neighbouring Santipur in the same district, where a young woman, Soma Bin, was seriously injured after her open hair got caught in the wheel of a generator during an immersion procession — a pattern that has raised questions about exposed machinery on procession vehicles.