The girl, who was travelling alone on route number 79, has not been identified yet.

Around 9 am, the bus came to a halt at Kalichamrai on National Highway 6, after local CPM workers protesting against an accident had put a roadblock.

The police said that a member of the CPM local committee had sustained serious injuries when a truck jumped the road divider and rammed into his bike. Soon, local CPM supporters gathered at the spot and blocked both flanks of the highway.

After about one and a half hours in the blockade, the girl felt uneasy and began frothing from the mouth, the police said. Since she was traveling alone , there was no one to take care of her.

Gobindo Naskar, secretary of the CPM local committee who led the protest, however, claimed innocence. “As soon as we were told that the girl had fallen sick, we arranged for a rickshaw- van. Our supporters took her to the Kona Hospital,” he said.

The condition of the girl deteriorated at the hospital in absence of adequate treatment facilities, sources said. She was then shifted to the Howrah State General Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.