‘Kids were in the back of pool car with windows up’, 3 lives lost after vehicle drowns
Telegraph | 26 November 2025
Windows rolled up, three children sitting in the rear seat of a pool car drowned after the vehicle fell into a roadside pond in Howrah’s Uluberia on Monday.
One of them, 11-year-old Souvik Das, lived barely 200m from the pond, while 7-year-old Ishika Mondal lived about 500m away. Metro spoke to Souvik’s cousin, Sudipta Das, and local resident Soumen Mondal, who jumped into the water to try and save the children. Their accounts:
Sudipta Das,
Souvik Das’s cousin
Souvik’s house is less than 200m from the pond where the Omni fell. There were five children in the car at the time. Souvik and two others were in the rear seat, and the windows were rolled up. The doors were locked. By the time neighbours reached, Souvik and the two other kids were unconscious. It took us 12-13 minutes to pull them out, but even a minute is enough for children that age to drown. The two children who survived were seated in the front beside the driver.
I am finding it hard to understand how the vehicle swerved into the pond. The road is about 16ft wide, and it isn’t even busy. Barely a minute before, the driver had dropped off a girl. I was in my office in Uluberia when Souvik’s uncle called. I rushed to the hospital.
Souvik was a quiet boy who was interested in art and was learning to paint. His father owns a poultry farm, and Souvik lived in a joint family with his parents, grandmother, uncle, aunt, and their son. I live close by and saw Souvik just yesterday when he came to a ceremony in my house.
Soumen Mondal,
Resident involved in rescue
When we reached the pond, we couldn’t see the car. It was completely submerged. We jumped in. The vehicle had drifted nearly to the middle; we used ropes to pull it out. The rear windows were rolled up. Some of us had to break the glass to pull the children out, but they were unconscious.
About 25 of us were trying to rescue them. Everyone was desperate, but the three children did not survive. The car had dropped my niece before plunging into the water.