A speeding truck hit one of the vehicles in Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari's convoy on Friday when he was returning to Kolkata from his ancestral residence in Kanthi in East Midnapore district. In a tweet, Suvendu Adhikari said a heavy vehicle rammed into a CRPF escort car of his convoy. No one was hurt in the accident, Adhikari said.
The incident took place at Marisda in East Midnapore and the CRPF escort vehicle was damaged severely, IANS reported. The driver of the truck is absconding. All police stations in the district have been alerted.
"A heavy vehicle rammed into a CRPF escort car of my convoy. By the grace of Lord Jagannath no body was hurt. I am not injured and would continue attending scheduled events. I am grateful for the innumerous calls enquiring about my well being and would assure everyone that I am fine," Suvendu Adhikari tweeted.
Police said the truck was being driven at excessive speed and the driver lost control, hitting the convoy of the Leader of the Opposition.
A police officer told PTI that a speeding Kalyani-Digha route bus went past the vehicle, which, in a bid to avoid collision, moved to the right and got hit by a truck instead.
There was an allegation that after the incident, one of the CRPF jawans in the convoy hit a driver of the bus, following which the latter had to be hospitalised. A senior police officer of East Midnapore said that this matter would be looked into as well once an official complaint was filed on this case.
A war of words soon ensued between the BJP and the ruling TMC over the incident. Amit Malviya, the national convener of the BJP's IT cell, in a tweet, hinted at some kind of foul play behind the accident.
"Nothing in Mamata Banerjee's Bengal is a coincidence. If a random vehicle can ram into an escort car of a protected individual, one can only imagine how safe anyone else is in West Bengal," Malviya tweeted.
Trinamool state general secretary and spokesman Kunal Ghosh said his party wished a very good health to Adhikari. "No one in Trinamool Congress wants him to face any accident. If he is not fit, how will he be able to face consequences of landing up behind the bars ultimately," IANS quoted Ghosh as saying.
(With agency inputs)