An appalling incident of police’s indifference to the common man reportedly took place in Hyderabad on Sunday evening. After the police helpline ‘100’ was dialled to report about an incident, it took the police over half an hour to reach the spot.
Why? Because they were occupied with supervising security arrangements at chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and Nizamabad MP K Kavitha’s birthday bash, reports The Times of India. The minister’s residence is at Road number 10 in Banjara Hills while the spot of the crime was at Road number 3 – barely three kilometres apart.
As per the report:
Around 4.15 pm, a few youngsters – Mubazir, Sirish and Srikanth – rounded up and started thrashing a person, Anush Kumar, black and blue on Road Number 3, Banjara Hills. On noticing the thrashing, TOI staff and a few passers-by called ‘Dial 100’.
The first complaint landed at the ‘Dial 100’ desk at 4.15 pm and the EMRI officials passed on the information to Police Control Room (PCR), Hyderabad by 4.16 pm. It was in turn passed on to local police and the office of DCP (West Zone) through the police communication network. Ironically, a two-member police party reached the location after 4.45 pm.
By the time the police arrived, the person had been reportedly thrashed badly. An attempt had even been made to abduct him. Two constable later took Anush into custody and dispersed the gathering.
In his defense, Banjara Hills inspector Murali Krishna said the police got caught in a traffic snarl.
Well, sadly, such incidents are not a common occurrence across India.
Here are a few other instances when, due to privileged service to a VVIP, the common man has had to bear the brunt.
In December 2015, insensitive traffic cops in West Bengal stopped an ambulance carrying a heart attack patient for Mamata Banerjee’s convoy.
In March 2015, a train was allegedly stopped by supporters of Union Minister for water resources Uma Bharati at Jhansi station after the minister was late by a few minutes, even as the authority denied such an incident.
In the same period, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, came under fire as traffic policemen at the NSCI Club in Mumbai had stopped private vehicles to make way for the Chief Minister’s convoy and video footage showed them grappling with some of the club members, including an elderly person.
We wish the police realises that they also need to give priority to the common man and not just the politicians and high flying bureaucrats.
(With inputs from PTI)
(Feature Image Source: Twitter)