Telangana Forest Minister Jogu Ramanna had a close shave on Monday when the wires of an elevator that he was travelling in, snapped and fell to the ground.
The incident took place at Mancherial town, reportedly as the elevator was overloaded. Ramanna escaped with no injuries.
The Minister was in the town to attend the inauguration ceremony of a private hospital and had entered the elevator with local MLA Diwakar Rao. The wires snapped when they were on the first floor and the elevator crashed and fell on the ground floor.
“It was a technical fault leading to the accident. If the cables had snapped when the lift was either on the second or third floor level, the occupants would have been injured,” a police official was quoted as saying.
The Minister's security and other officials then managed to pry open the elevator's doors and rescue those who were trapped inside.
In February this year, the Minister and several other VIPs had escaped after their tent accidentally caught fire due to sparks from firecrackers that exploded close to the venue.
The VIPs ran out of the tent after seeing the fire and no injuries were reported.
In July last year, Ramanna left officials and police personnel puzzled after he went ‘missing’ for close to an hour in a forest in Narsapur.
The Minister, along with deputy speaker Padmadevender Reddy was accompanied by forest officials when he went to the Narsapur forest, which is said to be one of the largest forests in the state.
Ramanna went there to flag off the state government's 'Haritha Haram' project, which aims to increase the green cover in Telangana.
The Minister and the officials planted a few saplings a few km away from the main road and highway.
While everyone, including the deputy speaker, made their way back to the lunch venue, the Minister reportedly lost his way.
The local media reported that the officials were anxious about the Minister’s disappearance and were scanning the entire area to locate him.
Much to the relief of the officials, he reached the spot an hour later.