Uttarakhand police say Rishabh Pant wasn’t overspeeding or drunk
The Uttarakhand police on Saturday said that cricketer Rishabh Pant, who met with an accident in Haridwar on Friday early morning, wasn’t overspeeding or in an inebriated state.
A CCTV footage of the incident had come to light following the incident in which the cricketer’s car could be seen hitting a road divider, seemingly at a high speed.
Haridwar senior superintendent of police (SSP), Ajai Singh said, “We have checked eight to 10 speed cameras from the Uttar Pradesh border to the accident spot in Narsan, the cricketer’s car didn’t cross the speed limit which is 80 km per hour on that national highway. In the CCTV footage, the car appears to be at a high speed because it went into the air after hitting the divider. Our technical team also inspected the accident site. We didn’t find anything that suggests overspeeding by the cricketer.”
The SSP further said, “If he would have been drunk, how could he drive 200 km from Delhi and not meet any accident for such a long distance? The doctor who gave him first aid at the Roorkee hospital also stated he was completely normal. That’s why he was able to successfully pull himself out of the car. Anybody drunk would not have been able to get out of the car.”
Uttarakhand director general of police (DGP) Ashok Kumar said the cricketer dozed off at the wheel which caused the accident.
A senior police official, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “In the CCTV footage, the car is seemingly hitting the road divider at a high speed. Since he didn’t hit anybody, no action would be taken.”
The cricketer, who survived the crash and remained conscious, himself told the police that he dozed off at the wheel and lost the balance of the car before it hit a divider, turned upside down, and burst into flames, the state police chief said.
The 25-year-old, who had suffered injuries on his forehead, right knee and abrasions on the back, was rescued by the driver-conductor duo of a Haryana Roadways bus. He was rushed to the Saksham Hospital in Roorkee in a government-run ambulance. From there he was referred to the Max Hospital in Dehradun for further treatment.
In one of his early statements to the police after the accident, the cricketer said that he didn’t remember exactly how everything happened, said superintendent of police, (rural), Haridwar, Swapn Kishore Singh. The cricketer was coming to his home town in Roorkee to give a surprise to his mother when his car met with the accident near Narsan under Mangalore police station. Prime minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami wished for his speedy recovery.
According to officials, a team of forensic experts, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials, and the transport department also studied the gutted car at Narsan police check post.
Meanwhile, the cricketer continues to be treated at the Max Hospital in Dehradun and is stable, an official at the hospital said on Saturday.
Delhi and District Cricket Association director Shyam Sharma on Saturday met the cricketer at the hospital.
Speaking to reporters, Sharma said, “He (Pant) is stable and recovering well. BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) doctors are in touch with the doctors at this hospital. BCCI would take a call if he has to be shifted anywhere else for the best treatment. Pant told me that he tried to save his car from a pothole when the accident occurred.”
On Friday, BCCI issued a detailed statement on Pant’s injuries after the accident.
“Rishabh has two cuts on his forehead, a ligament tear in his right knee and has also hurt his right wrist, ankle, toe and has suffered abrasion injuries on his back. Rishabh’s condition remains stable, and he has now been shifted to Max Hospital, Dehradun, where he will undergo MRI scans to ascertain the extent of his injuries and formulate his further course of treatment,” the statement from BCCI said.