"There is nothing more ironic than a person who is supposed to ensure the citizens' rights themselves show apathy," says 59-year-old Saraswathy, from Kerala's Kollam district.
Lying on her bed all day long for the past two weeks, she has been narrating the tale of apathy that she claims was shown to her by an official from the state's human rights commission.
Until the first week of April, Saraswathy used to get work under the government's MNREGA scheme. However, a road accident on April 6 has left her bed-ridden.
On April 6, it is the official vehicle of Human State Human Rights Commission Superintendent of Police CF Robert, that hit Saraswathy, that has now caused an injury to her backbone.
What is more disheartening, she says, is that she has been receiving nothing but apathy from the very people who are expected to guarantee the citizens, their fundamental rights.
Speaking to The News Minute, Saraswathy alleges that that the officer had even refused to take her to the hospital in his car, following the accident. At the time of the accident, it was the driver who was driving the car and a police personnel too, was present in the car.
"It was way past 6.30 pm and I was waiting on one side of the road to cross. This is when the car came and it did not have its headlight on, which made it difficult for me to see the car. Following the accident, the SP refused to even step out to check what happened. The locals then blocked the car and demanded that they take me to the hospital. But he refused. Finally, the locals got an autorickshaw to take me to the hospital," Saraswathy recalls.
Saraswathy's son Satheeshan remarks: "Neither did he offer to take care of the medical expenses, nor has he check on my mother after the accident. We are not demanding that he pay for her medical expense, but couldn't he have at least taken her to a hospital on humanitarian grounds?"
When The News Minute reached out to SP Robert, he denied all allegations by Saraswathy's family.
"My car hit her when she was trying to cross the road, that's what my driver has said. It is utter rubbish that I refused to take her to a hospital in my car. I was just about to do that, when the locals took her away in an autorickshaw. I did refuse at first, because its an accident case and without the police arriving at the scene, the car shouldn't be ideally moved," the officer said.
The car was taken away to Ochira police station and a case was filed on the same day. SP Robert maintains that there is nothing inhuman about his action.
"The family's allegations are false and some local media outlets have been accusing me wrongly, trying to sabotage the image of the Rights Commission. This is a case of a road accident and there is no rights violation here. What I could have done was to help them out with the medical expenses on humanitarian grounds, but since there is a police case, let it take its due course," the SP maintained.