Police did not help us: Mother of 11-year-old boy killed in accident in Salt Lake
Telegraph | 14 November 2024
The mother of the 11-year-old boy who was killed in Tuesday’s accident in Salt Lake alleged that police did not come to her help while her son lay bleeding on the road.
Nur Jahan Paik, whose son Ayush was killed when a bus trying to overtake another hit the front handlebar of the scooter they were riding, said a passerby stopped an autorickshaw that took them to hospital.
“No policemen had come forward to help us even as my son and niece lay bleeding on the road. A passerby stopped an autorickshaw that took us to the hospital,” Nur Jahan said on Wednesday. “Policemen saw my son lying on the road but did not help us.”
Khokan Maity, the driver of the autorickshaw that had taken Nur Jahan, her 11-year-old son Ayush and her two-year-old niece Afroza Khatoon to a private hospital in Ultadanga, said he had run to a police kiosk near the accident site for help.
“Three policemen were busy on their phones in the kiosk. I told them about the accident and sought their help. They expressed surprise at the news of the accident and said that was why there were such snarls,” Maity said.
“The cops then said they could not help as the accident spot was not in their jurisdiction. They asked me to take the injured to the hospital. I ran back to my autorickshaw and drove them to the hospital,” said Maity.
Badana Varun Chandrasekhar, joint commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar commissionerate, denied the claims made by the mother and Maity.
“Police personnel are deployed at the crossing on all days. The claims seem baseless as our personnel had stopped the autorickshaw driver. They also stopped the buses and detained the drivers. Later, both were arrested. A police team also reached the private hospital where the boy had been taken,” said Chandrasekhar.
Nur Jahan also alleged that officials at North City Hospital and doctors at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences did not treat the boy and misbehaved with them.
“North City Hospital sent us to Dr BC Roy hospital. My son did not get proper treatment in either hospital and the doctors and other medical personnel misbehaved with us. They asked us to take him elsewhere,” Nur Jahan said.
An official in the state health department said a doctor had examined the boy and explained his condition to the family.
“The boy was brought to Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences in an ambulance. His head was bandaged. The postgraduate trainee doctor on duty went to the ambulance and examined the boy. The doctor told the family that the hospital did not have the facilities needed for the boy’s treatment. He needed neurosurgery. The family then decided to take him away,” said the official.
An official at North City Hospital said on Wednesday evening that they would get back with a response.
On Tuesday, Nur Jahan had picked up Ayush from his school in Kestopur. She had taken Afroza with her.
The three were riding back home when a bus that was trying to overtake another hit the front end of the two-wheeler on the Ultadanga-bound flank of First Avenue near Salt Lake’s gate number II. All three were flung off the two-wheeler.
Ayush’s head slammed against the bus that hit the scooter before he fell on the road. He was declared dead at a private hospital in Beleghata.
Nur Jahan and Afroza, too, were injured. Nur Jahan was wearing a helmet but the children were without anyheadgear.
Afroza underwent a CT scan at NRS Medical College and Hospital.
“We have brought her home. My sister (Nur Jahan) is still inconsolable. We have asked her not to ride any two-wheeler again,” said Afroza’s father Mohammed Hossain.
On Wednesday morning, Metro saw traffic norms being violated routinely near the accident spot.
Pedestrians were crossing the road even though the traffic light for vehicles was green and cars, buses and autorickshaws drove past them.
Buses slowed down randomly and even stopped in the middle of the carriageway to pick up or drop passengers. Several two-wheeler riders were spotted riding without helmets. Many of those wearing helmets did not fasten the chin straps. There were policemen but they did not attempt to book law-violators.
Several stretches of the road had an uneven surface. Multiple protrusions around service hatches on the road added to the risks.
The only changes were some guardrails installed and a few humps created on Wednesday.
Amarnath Choudhury and Krishnendu Dutta, the drivers of the two buses arrested on Tuesday, were produced in a Salt Lake court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody for three days.
They have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.