Nagpur News:The recent exposed nexus between cops and criminals in the Vasantrao Naik slums case in the city have dealt a major blow to the credibility of the city police. However, despite of the suspension of senior officer and others in the case, the Sitabuldi police didn’t seems to have learnt any lesson from it.
On Friday, Nagpur Today received a complaint from few people blaming inaction of Sitabuldi police in an accident case.
On Thursday evening, an alleged drunk driver coming from wrong side knocked down a 43-year-old woman in front of Adivasi office near RTO office. The victim Sonia Janbandhu succumbed to her injuries during treatment at a private hospital on early Friday morning.
Janbandhu’s relatives and neighbours claimed that police register an accident case four hours after the mishap took place. According to the relative, the accident occurred around 7.30 pm while the cops register the FIR by midnight.
“Till 11 pm, the incident was just entered in the station diary. The case was registered only after few of us enquired about it,” said the nieghbour Amol Sakhure, who also witnessed the incident.
According to Amol, the accused car driver hit two more bikes after hitting Janbandhu. It came to halt after it climbed the divider and rammed into an electric pole.
He said that as the onlookers rushed to Janbandhu, the driver escaped from the scene. Later, the car having registration number MH-31 AH-1438 was seized by the Sitabuldi police.
Janbandhu was rushed to nearby private hospital at Ravi Nagar where she died during treatment. Sakhure told that around 10 pm, they had been to the police station to check whether the driver has been arrested or any offence registered against him.
“We were surprised to know that the incident was just entered into the station diary. When asked to the cops, they said that the incident took place during the day officer’s charge and he will only register the case. They asked us to come on Friday morning when the day officer will take his charge again,” said Sakhure.
More interestingly, Sakhure with few others even helped the cops to get the accused driver’s address from the RTO. “Initially police sent us back saying that the RTO office is closed and hence they can’t get the address. Later, we contacted the RTO officials and get the driver address,” he said. As per the RTO information, Sakhure said that the car belongs to Gulab Yognarayan Dubey, a resident of Laxmishah Apartment in Tukdoji Nagar.
Sakhure alleged that initially police was not willing to send a constable with them at RTO. However, despite of the address, police have failed to nab the accused.
“The driver was drunk and hence we wanted the cops to arrest him early to catch him in inebriated condition. But the cops delay has weakened the case now,” said a relative.
On Friday morning, police extended the accident into fatal after learning Janbndhu’s death.
Denying the allegations, Seniour PI Vivek Joshi said that they have filed the case timely. He told that the cops had gone twice to arrest the accused but he was not present. He assured to arrest the driver soon.
