Patna: BJP president Amit Shah stuck in elevator, rescued

BJP president Amit Shah along with his party's Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and Saudan Singh got stuck in a lift at the state guest house in Patna on Thursday night.

BJP president Amit Shah along with his party's Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and Saudan Singh got stuck in a lift at the state guest house in Patna on Thursday night.

The incident occured around 11:15pm and Shah remained locked inside the lift for around 20 minutes.

He provided the toll free emergency number of the lift company to his security personnel. Suffocated and panic stricken, Shah and others were rescued by the CRPF men who ripped apart steel doors of the elevator.

The elevator at the guest house in Patna in which Amit Shah got stuck. (HT Photo)

Bihar BJP president Mangal Pandey said if it was the condition of state guest house, one could well imagine the plight of common masses. "Shah was feeling suffocated and there was no help in sight. The security personnel did well to break open the lift," he added.

Shah left for New Delhi on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, slamming the state government for the incident, senior BJP leader CP Thakur said "conspiracy" cannot be ruled out.

"Rivals keep speaking ill against BJP and its chief throughout the day. Conspiracy cannot be ruled out in the incident," Thakur said.

However, the state government dismissed the charge and attributed the incident to "overloading".

Principal secretary cabinet coordination Shishir Sinha, who had visited the state guest house after the episode with secretary, information and public relations department Pratyay Amrit, said, "Prima facie overloading appears to be the cause of the incident."

"The lift at the state guest house is brand new with a total capacity of 340 kg. People accompanying Shah said more than five persons were in the lift at that time which apparently means there was more weight than the permissible limit," Sinha told PTI.