March 7: Folk singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharjee died this morning when his Innova fell nearly 15 feet into a muddy ditch near Gurap on the Durgapur Expressway. Two other members of his band Dohar were critically injured and have been shifted to Bangur Institute of Neurology from Burdwan Medical College.

Kalikaprasad, 47, and five others were headed for Suri to perform in a function there when one of the tyres of the Innova burst. The vehicle rammed the crash barrier to the left of the road and wobbled for a few metres before hitting the concrete edge of a culvert and toppling over. This was around 9.30am.

Kalikaprasad, who had formed Dohar in 1999 as a band specialising in folk songs of Bengal and the Northeast, was seated beside the driver when the accident occurred.

The driver had tried steering the vehicle to safety after the tyre burst but it wobbled and swerved towards the crash barrier, the survivors told police.

The speed of the Innova apparently prevented the vehicle from coming to a halt before it hit the culvert and overturned.

As the vehicle landed roof down in the mud-filled ditch, villagers working in the adjacent fields stopped a lorry and used a crowbar in its toolkit to prise open a door and pull out Kalikaprasad and the rest.

Some of the rescuers tried pumping the singer's chest to revive him before a team from Gurap police station arrived. He did not respond.

The band members were all taken to Burdwan Medical College, nearly 25km from the accident site, where Kalikaprasad was declared dead on arrival.

Two of the injured were shifted to Calcutta later in the day. The driver, Rajiv Das, was discharged after treatment.

"Sandipan Pal and Sudipta Chakrabarty have been referred to Bangur Institute of Neurology. They have spinal cord fractures and need neuro-surgery," said Utpal Dan, medical superintendent of Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted a condolence message within minutes of news about the accident reaching her. "Kalikaprasad's demise is a personal loss. He was a close friend. Condolences to his family and fans," she wrote.

Mamata laid flowers on the singer's body when the hearse stopped at Nabanna, en route to his Santoshpur residence. Kalikaprasad's body was also taken to Rabindra Sadan, where fellow artistes and fans turned up in large numbers to pay tributes.

"A few days ago, he had turned up at my studio saying he wanted to talk to me about music. He was one of the most ardent followers of folk music," said composer Debojyoti Mishra.

Kalikaprasad was cremated with full state honours at Keoratala.

The Silchar-born singer, who did his post-graduation in comparative literature at Jadavpur University, was a researcher in folk music apart from being a popular artiste. Kalikaprasad was adept at different genres of folk music, including baul, bhatiali, bhawaiya and jhumur . He also did playback for national award-winning films like Jaatishwar and Moner Manush.

Kalikaprasad had composed the tunes for Bhuban Majhi, a still-to-be-released Bangladeshi film based on the country's liberation war.

One of Kalikaprasad's gurus, the legendary baul singer Gaur Khyapa, also died in a road accident in 2013.