'No pothole on road when Rishabh Pant met with accident': NHAI contradicts DDCA

There were no potholes on the road where cricketer Rishabh Pant's car met with a near-fatal accident, a National Highways Authority of India official said on Monday.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, after meeting the cricketer at a hospital in Dehradun on Sunday, had said Pant told him that his car crashed while he was trying to avoid a pothole on the highway.

However, NHAI Roorkee Division Project Director Pradeep Singh Gusain told PTI, "There were no potholes on the road where the accident occurred. The road where the car crashed is a little narrow due to a canal (Rajwaha) adjacent to the highway. The canal is used for irrigation." Gusain also denied the accident site was repaired by the NHAI and the "potholes" were fixed, even though some pictures of workmen purportedly mending a stretch of the highway went viral late on Sunday evening.

Dhami had told reporters after meeting Pant at the Max Hospital that the cricketer had lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid a pothole or something black. "He (Pant) said the car swerved across the road while trying to avoid a pothole or something black," Dhami told reporters after meeting the cricketer at the hospital.

Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Director Shyam Sharma, who met Pant on Saturday, had also said quoting the keeper-batter that the accident occurred when he was trying to negotiate a pothole in the early hours of Friday.

The massive accident had occurred at around 5.30 am on Friday when Pant's luxury car hit a road divider near Roorkee in the Haridwar district and burst into flames causing multiple injuries to the cricketer who had a miraculous escape.