Teen dies in freak accident after ball hits him in the neck, below ear

KOLKATA: A 19-year-old boy died in a freak accident in Watgunge on Sunday after being hit by a ball on his neck, below the right earlobe, while playing with his friends.

Aniket Das from Mansatala Lane off Diamond Harbour Road was found struggling to breathe shortly after the incident and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.

The death of the boy, who would have turned 20 on April 4, has left the narrow lane in Watgunge in shock. Residents said they were still trying to come to terms with how a routine playing session could end in such a tragedy.

According to the family, Aniket was outside the house on Sunday playing with a "hard rubber ball" when the incident occurred.

"They were tossing the ball in the air and then catching it. According to what his friends said, the ball hit something mid-air and changed direction to hit Aniket in the neck between the jawbone and the earlobe," said Aniket's father Debabrata (62), a retired govt official. He has lodged a formal complaint with the police, seeking investigation into the circumstances of his son's death.

In his complaint, Debabrata said Aniket was found in a serious condition around 5.30 pm, while playing outside their home. He told the police that no family member was present at the spot at the time. The family said some neighbours alerted them after seeing Aniket collapse. "I rushed out to find him lying on the ground and struggling to breathe. His friends told me he was hit by a ball," said Aniket's mother Neetu, a homemaker.

She first took him inside the house, after which other family members took him to CMRI Hospital in Ekbalpore. "His mother has refused to eat. She has hardly stepped out of her room in the past two days," said Aniket's aunt Suman Kumari.

"The friends would play together most of the time. We just want to know how it happened. We do not blame anyone specific for what happened to our son," Debabrata said, adding cops told him a probe would be conducted to rule out all possibilities.

Investigators are speaking to witnesses to reconstruct the sequence of events. Officers said some witnesses told them Aniket may have been practising catches by himself when the ball struck him after changing direction.

"We have registered an unnatural death case and a probe has begun," said Harikrishna Pai, DC (Port).