15 November,2010 06:58 AM IST | | Debarati Palit
Family of accident victim says police 'too busy' to complete procedures
If you think that in the event of a death the police will act promptly, ask Sahita Khan's family of their experience. Not only did they have to deal with the trauma of Khan's death, they also had to deal with the police keeping them waiting for almost four hours to claim the body.
Yusuf Memon, Khan's brother, said, "Sahita and her husband met with an accident at Sonya Maruti Chowk on Tuesday. She was immediately shifted to KEM Hospital where she lost her life on Thursday around 6 pm.
She was practically admitted in the hospital for less than 48 hours. All that the Faraskhana police station had to do was to give us a panchnama and accompany us to the Sassoon dead house."
Since it was an accident, the police had to accompany the family to the Sassoon dead house and issue a panchnama for the same.
The hospital authorities started calling the police from 7 pm till 7.30 pm. But the police station phone was either busy or no one picked up the call. Memon said, "Subsequently, we went to Faraskhana police station, which is 10 minutes from the hospital and requested them to speak to the hospital authorities. We met Constable Kale who was on the phone speaking to someone else. When I suggested that they can speak to the authorities, they bluntly refused, saying that it's not their job and it's the hospital that will have to follow up with them.
They then said that they would be in the hospital within minutes."
But after several requests and heated discussion between the family members and police, the police still failed to show up till 10 pm.
"It was around 10.30 pm that two officials from Faraskhana and the Ganesh Peth police chowky came and we went to Sassoon Hospital around 11.45 pm. Because of the delay by the police, the final rites were delayed," he adds.
An official from Sassoon hospital dead house said the body had arrived only at 12.10 am. "It took us only half hour to give the death certificate," said the official.
