Senior Chhattisgarh Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mahesh Bahgel and four others were charred to death after their car met with an accident and caught fire near Raipur on Friday this evening, police said.

Baghel, the legislator from Keshkal in Bastar district, was a parliamentary secretary with the status of a minister of state.

"The car in which Baghel, his gunman and three others were travelling overturned and caught fire near Abhanpur, about 35 km from Raipur," Senior Superintendent of Police B S Maravi told PTI.

The incident took place at around 9 pm when Baghel was on his way to the state capital in his official car from Abhanpur, he said.

All the five -- Baghel, his PA, gunman, the driver and an unidentified person - could not come out of the car and were burnt to death, Maravi said.

The SSP said the police broke the car doors and extricated the bodies.