Bail plea of trucker who hit Mamata’s convoy rejected

KOLKATA - A West Bengal court Monday rejected the bail plea of truck driver Gurjant Singh, whose vehicle hit the convoy of Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee while she was returning from the Aug 9 Lalgarh rally.

Singh was remanded to custody till Aug 25 by the chief judicial magistrate court in Tamluk of East Midnapore.

The family members of Singh who came from Punjab and his lawyer were visibly frustrated after the bail plea was rejected.

Singh’s lawyer Ashoke Dinda said: “The state police chief earlier made it clear that because of a mechanical fault, the truck could not be stopped from hitting a car of railway minister’s convoy, which suggests that Gurjant had no intention of committing such a crime.”

“We were hopeful that Gurjant would be released today (Monday) but unfortunately he was not released as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police probing into the incident did not submit the case diary,” he said.

Gurjant was first arrested Aug 9 following a complaint lodged by Trinamool MP Subhendhu Adhikari and released on bail the very next day.

After Trinamool leaders alleged that the accident was an attempt on Banerjee’s life, the state government engaged the CID to probe the matter.

The CID rearrested Gurjant Aug 11 and he was subsequently remanded to CID custody for 12 days by the Tamluk court.

A CID officer said: “The team looking into whether there was any foul play conducted the vehicle’s mechanical tests besides interrogating Gurjant and felt the accident occurred because of a mechanical snag.”

When asked why the CID had not submitted the report of the mechanical tests and the case diary before the court, the officer said: “The court did not seek any such documents from us and it was not mandatory to submit the charge sheet before the court during the first appearance of the accused.”

The truck hit the car of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials in the convoy at Kolaghat, injuring an officer.