A thud, then the free fall

Biswas at Siliguri district hospital on Friday
Picture by Kundan Yolmo

BIRESWAR BANERJEE, TT, Siliguri, July 15: Sudip Kumar Biswas heard a sudden thud and for some time, his head felt light and his stomach lurched. The blaring of the escort car's siren became fainter and fainter.

After a blur that seemed to last several seconds, the car came to a sudden halt and the police sub-inspector was thrown off his seat.

Lying in a bed in Siliguri district hospital around four hours after the accident, Biswas, who was in the escort car that fell into the gorge, recounted his experience.

"I was sitting alone in one of the face-to-face seats at the back of the Scorpio. Suddenly, the car skidded and swerved to the right. It took me a couple of seconds to realise we were no longer on the road. The car was plunging. It was hurtling down through thick foliage," he said.

"The car hit a tree and stopped. I heard the window glasses shatter. I was hit by shards of glass all over the body," said Biswas, who also suffered a leg injury.

"I was lying upside down. My head hit the floor of the car. All the windows were broken and the seats were damaged. The other officers were groaning in pain. I managed to open the back door and get off. I had suffered a sprain in my legs and they were hurting badly," he added.

Biswas said that when he got off, he found himself surrounded by thick vegetation. "I was in a daze, but I could feel I was standing on a slope. When I recovered a bit, I started climbing through the dense fog, grabbing grass and weeds," he said.

Then he saw policemen who were part of the rescue operation lowering a rope into the gorge. "I held on to it and climbed up," Biswas said.

When Biswas was back on the road, he saw chief minister Mamata Banerjee monitoring the rescue operations, a mike in hand.