Trinamool Congress MP Dibyendu Adhikary had a narrow escape when a truck hit his car near Chandipur police station on National Highway 116B in East Midnapore on Saturday night. The incident took place when he was returning from Tamluk.
Police said Adhikary, MP from Tamluk Parliamentary constituency, had gone to attend a few programmes and the accident took place at around 11 pm on Saturday when he was on his way back.
It may be recalled that MP Abhishek Banerjee also had a major accident on National Highway 2 near Singur while returning to Kolkata from a programme in Murshidabad on October 18. He had received severe injuries.
Adhikary, however, was not severely injured and left for home after a few minutes of the accident. A police officer said that the MP's car in a convoy was heading towards Contai from Nandakumar when a truck from behind suddenly hit the pilot car in the convoy near Chanditala police station.
Driver of the pilot car somehow managed to control of his vehicle and stopped it before it collided against a tree beside the road. The loaded truck had somehow stopped after brushing past the MP's car after hitting the pilot vehicle. As a result there was not much damage. It would have led to a major accident if it had directly hit the MP's car, said a police officer.
Policemen from Chanditala rushed to the spot and arrested the accused driver.
Police suspect that the driver was in an inebriated state and failed to control the vehicle as it was at the top of its speed. The truck had stopped after the accident due to some technical snag.
A probe has been initiated in this connection. The investigating officers are not ruling out possibility of any conspiracy behind the incident and are also interrogating the driver. The police are also going through the call details of the driver, sources added.
Though the incident happened pretty late in the night at around 11 pm, locals gathered after they came to know that the MP had a narrow escape.
It may be mentioned that the 91 km long National Highway 116B runs via Digha and Contai from Nandakumar and terminates at Chandaneswar near Balasore in Odisha. Apart from a small stretch with to and fro facility, the entire remaining stretch is quite narrow. Moreover, there are several sharp bends and at the same time there are human habitations on both sides of the road. Despite this, buses and other vehicles ply at break-neck speed. The police are also taking several steps to avert such accidents on the road connecting the state's most popular sea side tourist spot of the state — Digha.