Boy misses test as auto runs over foot

KOLKATA: An 18-year-old boy failed to appear for his ISC selection test on Wednesday morning as an auto driver, in a brazen example of refusing passengers, drove over his foot, fracturing two of his toes. This, at a rushhour jam-packed Jadavpur 8B crossing, though none of the milling onlookers made any attempt to stop the fleeing auto.
Worse, the cops at the Jadavpur police station refused to register an FIR and made the boy file a general diary as he could not remember the vehicle's registration number.
The incident took place around 11.15am when Akash Roy, a resident of East Road at Jadavpur, frantically tried to wave down an auto to go to his school, Modern Academy, at Dhakuria. According to Roy, he had already waited for seven minutes at 8B but over 20 autos refused to take him to Dhakuria. “ All of them said there was a jam ahead and they would not go beyond Jadavpur Phari. I have been living in Jadavpur for three-and-a-half years now, and this hooliganism has been a chronic problem,“ Roy said.“Finally, I spotted an auto slow down for passengers near the bus stand and decided to take a chance as two seats were empty.“ Roy ran along the vehi cle, pleading with the driver to ferry him to his school or he would be late for his physics exam. “The driver did not even look at me, let alone respond, and kept moving ahead. Seconds later, I felt a searing pain. The vehicle had run over my foot,“ Roy said.
Roy could not take his physics test. “The school has hinted I could take a re-test. I am in pain but I will try to make it for the Bengali exam tomorrow,“ he said. Roy had scored 96.2% in ICSE. “The accident is a big setback in my ISC preparations,“ Roy said.