A day after the mini-truck crash in Hanskhali claimed 17 lives, a team of Nadia District Hospital that did an autopsy on the driver failed to confirm he was drunk.

Police probing the accident on Sunday indicated mini truck driver Prasenjit Biswas, 20, apparently failed to control the vehicle as he was speeding while being drunk.

As the autopsy at the district hospital in Krishnagar failed to conclusively ascertain the presence of alcohol in his stomach, samples will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta.

“It (the autopsy) is not clear enough. So we need further investigation. We are planning to send samples to the FSL. Visceral samples from stomach or intestine will also be sent for test,” an official of Nadia district health administration said.

A senior official of Ranaghat police district said: “We are waiting for the blood alcohol report of the driver. But it appears it would take more time.”

The owner of the mini-truck, Uttam Sarkar, 48, a resident of Gyarapota-Kamlapur in North 24 Parganas, ruled out that driver Prasenjit was drunk. Instead, he apprehended a “technical snag” in the vehicle that spiralled beyond control.

“I knew Prasenjit from his childhood. He was a cleaner and later began driving. But I never found him drinking alcohol. He is like my son and I handed him over my vehicle to drive recently following problems in my eyesight,” said Sarkar. “My vehicle was 13 years old and I guess it developed a sudden technical snag which he failed to control while speeding. But I don’t believe he was drunk.”

To ascertain any technical snag, a team of forensic experts from FSL will examine the mini truck on Tuesday in Hanskhali. The team will also visit the accident site and examine the stone-chip-laden truck that the mini truck had rammed, killing 17 persons headed to the Nabadwip crematorium.

Police arrested Sudipta Ghosh, 27, driver of the stone-chip-laden truck for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash driving on public way and for causing grievous injury to people by negligence.

Additional superintendent of Ranaghat police district Rupantar Sengupta said Ghosh was produced before the ACJM court in Ranaghat on Monday which ordered police custody for three days. “We will interrogate him on how the accident occurred,” the ASP said.