Student body found near tea garden

Kurseong, Nov. 13: The body of a 19-year-old boy, who had gone missing on November 9, was found in Dhobitar, 3km from here, this morning.

An empty bottle of apple juice and the covers of Spasmoproxyvon were recovered from near the body of Furtangi Sherpa, a Class X student of St Alphonsus School here.

The boy was a resident of Sherpa Busty, situated above Kurseong.

Furtangi, who had lost his parents, used to live with his uncle Norbu Sherpa, a government employee. Asked whether his nephew had been a drug addict, Norbu said: “We have no knowledge about that.”

He said the boy had gone missing on November 9 and a diary had been filed with the Kurseong police station the next day.

“There was no specific reason for Furtangi to leave the house. We had been searching for him till this morning when we got the news from police that he was found dead,” said Norbu.

A police officer said the body had been spotted first by the workers of nearby Gauri Shankar Tea Estate around 8.30am.

“Initial investigation shows that he had gulped do-wn 48 Spasmoproxyvon tabl-ets with apple juice. The student might have died not less than two days ago. We suspect that he was suffering from depression,” said the officer.

He added that the body had been sent to the Kurse-ong Subdivisional Hospital for post-mortem and any co-mment on the possible cause of the death could be made only after the police received the report on it.

Kurseong subdivisional police officer Rakesh Singh also echoed the official. "Since we have not received the post-mortem report, we don't want to speculate on how the boy died. The investigation is going on,” he said.

The police said there was no injury mark on the body and chances of murder were less.

A case of unnatural death has been registered.

Contacted, the principal of the school, Father Edwards Gurung, said he was unaware of the death.

“Since the school is closed both today and tomorrow because of Morcha strike, we are not aware of the death of any student. I am not able to identify the boy by his name. Whatever has happened is sad for us and his family,” said Gurung over the phone from Siliguri.