Raipur, Sep 24 (IANS) Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government Sunday promised to probe the death of a five-year-old girl allegedly crushed by the speeding convoy of senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi. His office, however, denied the charge.

Witnesses and relatives of the victim, Saraswati, said she was crushed to death by one of the piloting vehicles of Joshi's convoy at around 8 p.m. Saturday on the busy Station Road here. None of the convoy staff even took note of the accident and sped away, they said.

The convoy staff left for the Celebration Hotel for a function scheduled there, leaving the girl writhing in a pool of blood. More than an hour after the accident, she was taken to a government hospital where she was declared dead.

Joshi was on a daylong visit to this Chhattisgarh capital to attend an event organised by a local Hindi daily.

The former union minister's office in New Delhi denied any such incident. "There was no such incident. I checked with Joshiji. No such accident took place by his convoy," the MP's personal assistant Pradeep Jain told IANS.

The state government, on the other hand, refused to comment whether the former party president's convoy was involved in the accident.

"I came to know about the accident today. It is quite unfortunate. The government will collect details and will soon identify the erring driver," Chhattisgarh's Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told IANS from Bilaspur over telephone.

The opposition Congress, however, criticised Joshi's staff for the alleged misbehaviour.

"Joshi might not be aware of the incident but the BJP's state government must have registered an offence and booked the culprit. It was shocking to know that police baton-charged some protesters who blocked the road soon after the incident and even refused to register a complaint," state Congress general secretary Ramesh Varlyani said.

Netam responded to the criticism by saying that "the issue should not be politicised. The guilty will be punished and I will supervise the matter. The government will offer compensation to the family of the deceased after completing some formalities."

The home minister refused to comment why police used baton on the protesters and why their complaint was not registered at the Ganj police station.

Dilip Bahadur, the father of the victim, maintained Sunday morning that his daughter was crushed by Joshi's convoy.

"She would have been saved if she had been immediately taken to a hospital. But the people in the convoy took no notice. She was taken to a government hospital at least one hour after the accident by locals," said Dilip who belongs to a poor family.

Saraswati's mother was critically ill since Saturday night when she saw her daughter's body in the mortuary at the Bhim Rao Ambedkar Hospital here.

According to an eyewitness, the convoy hit two girls but Saraswati was tossed up in the air. The convoy, however, went ahead without pausing to take notice.

"Hundreds of emotionally charged locals blocked the road protesting the inhuman behaviour of Joshi and his convoy staff but the police reached the accident site and resorted to baton-charge," said Raju Makhani, an eyewitness and rickshaw puller.