Five tourists from West Bengal were detained by the Baleswar police for overtaking the vehicle of Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi on NH-16 under the Basta police limits on Sunday.
Reportedly, the incident occurred when one Santosh Shaw along with his family members were returning to Kolkata from the Panchalingeswar by two cars.
“While traveling, we heard a siren near Basta. Thinking it to be an ambulance, we let it pass. However, later we realised it to be a Minister’s car with a pilot vehicle escorting it. After sometime, the pilot car went off the road to a ‘kachha’ road and it was then that we overtook them,” said Shaw. Later, the Minister’s pilot vehicle chased the two vehicles for around 20 km till Lakhmannath toll gate in Jaleswar area and brought Shaw and his family members to Basta police station.
They were detained for five hours and later released after signing an undertaking that they wouldn’t commit the mistake again.
