Pune, Jun 24 (Mid-day) : When 59-year-old Nandkishor Radheshyam Sharma left his home for a glimpse of the Sant Dnyaneshwar palkhi procession passing through the city, he did not know where his devotion was leading him, or that the city would punish him for it with death.
Sharma, who worked as office superintendent at the MES department in Southern Command, was near NMV School on Bajirao Road, hoping to see the warkaris pass by, when a speeding car knocked him down from the rear, around 8 pm on Saturday.
While the rash driver fled away, Sharma blacked out.
After some 15 minutes passed by, he came to and found himself spread out on the footpath, unable to move. (The passers-by had done him the courtesy of moving his insentient body from the road to the footpath, only to get him out of the way and carry on with their lives.)
Sharma fought the pain to grope for his cell phone, and dialled home. At the other end, his shocked wife, unable to completely gather what had happened to him, rushed to Bajirao Road from their Katraj residence, along with her husband’s 71-year-old uncle.
He was rushed to Ruby Hospital. But there had been a critical medical delay. The next morning, after battling for life through the night, he gave up his struggle, and the doctors pronounced him dead.
His uncle, 71-year-old Inderchand Sharma who had rushed him to the hospital, said, “Just one call to the emergency ambulance services (108) might have saved Nandkishor’s life. We don’t have any grievances against any of them (onlookers), but a little help could have made all the difference.”
No time to save a life?
Officials from Vishrambaug police station said some of the passers-by had picked up Sharma after he was hit, placed him on a footpath nearby and hurried away from the spot. Inderchand said, “After reaching the spot, we asked a few onlookers to help us put him in an auto. The police officials on bandobast duty cooperated with us, and removed all the barricades so that our auto could pass through.”
“At Ruby Hospital, Nandkishor was shifted to the cardiac care unit for treatment. He vomited a couple of times and his blood pressure dropped. He already suffered from kidney and sugar problems, and succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning.”
Vishwas Pandhare, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, condemned the bystanders’ indifference. “It is extremely sad and shameful that none of the onlookers helped the victim. In such cases, people should rush to the victim’s aid without thinking about the police case. The treatment provided during the golden hour can save a person’s life.”
Police officials said that a case has been registered against the unknown driver under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304(a) (causing death by negligence) of the IPC, and section 177 (general provision for punishment of offences) of the Motor Vehicles Act.