Madhya Pradesh / Hospital lift with ex-MP CM Kamal Nath in it falls to basement; CM orders probe

Indore: It was a close shave for former chief minister Kamal Nath and three MLAs when the lift of DNS Hospital fell due to some technical reasons on Sunday.

The lift landed in the basement from the ground floor while Kamal Nath was in the lift to go to the third floor to visit congress leader Ramesh Patel, admitted to the hospital.

The former chief minister and other leaders were stuck in the lift for over 10 minutes and could come out only after the technician opened the door.

No injuries were reported in the incident while the hospital administration claimed that the incident took place due to overloading of the lift.

Congress leaders demanded immediate action and probe in the matter while CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed district collector Manish Singh to launch a probe in the matter.

The incident took place at around 6 pm when Kamal Nath had reached DNS Hospital at LIG Square to visit congress leader Rameshwar Patel.

He along with Sajjan Singh Verma, Jitu Patwari, Vishal Patel, Radheshyam Patel, Archana Jaiswal, Vinay Bakliwal, security personnel of the former chief minister and others were in the lift at the time of the incident. Panic prevailed after the incident as Kamal Nath was seen sweating after coming out of the lift.

"The lift had fallen from ground floor to the basement. No one was injured in the incident and Kamal Nath used stairs to go on the third floor of the hospital. The incident took place as the lift was overloaded. About 14 people boarded the lift which has the capacity of about half of it,” Congress leader Satyanarayan Patel said after the incident.

The lift was overloaded: Hospital

Director of DNS Hospital Manish Sanghvi said, "The lift was not fallen but only went down to the basement due to overloading. No one was hurt in the incident. After coming out of the lift, the former chief minister took the stairs to go up."

Security lapses exposed: Congress

Media convener of congress Narendra Saluja termed the incident unfortunate and said that the incident took place due to security lapses. “A probe should be launched in the matter and action should be taken against those found guilty and against the hospital as well,” Saluja said.

CM tweeted, ADM to probe

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan talked to congress leaders and Kamal Nath over phone after the incident. He informed in his tweet that he had directed the district collector to probe the matter. Later, Collector Manish Singh launched a magisterial probe in the matter led by ADM Himanshu Chandra.

After the incident, the former CM was seen seeking Lord Hanuman's blessings. "I always has blessings of Lord Hanuman: Kamal Nath tweeted with a picture with Jitu Patwari and Sajjan Singh Verma.