A youth seriously injured after being hit by a bus lay unattended near Madhya Pradesh Assembly in Bhopal and later died, even as policemen there allegedly stayed busy arranging for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's convoy, prompting Congress to demand action against the personnel.
The 22-year-old victim, Vikas Soniya, was hit by a bus near the state Assembly building on Tuesday and allegedly lay unattended writhing in pain. According to police, Vikas was later rushed to J P Hospital. From there he was taken to Narmada hospital where he died. A senior police official said that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Taking a dim view of the youth's demise "for want of immediate attention and medical care", the state Congress unit on Thursday demanded that policemen deputed in front of the Assembly on March 1 should be booked for murder as they allegedly did not help the victim.
"Policemen deputed in front of the assembly two days ago should be charged with murder as they intentionally didn't attend Vikas Soniya, whose motorbike was hit by a bus, for half-an-hour as they gave pre-eminence to saluting MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose convoy was to pass from the road," state Congress spokesman K K Mishra alleged.
"According to information coming to me, the accident took place at around 11.20 AM, but the police on duty didn't attend him, rather they pulled him and his motorbike on the side of the road to make way for the CM's convoy," he alleged.
People around the place rang up the '108' ambulance service at around 11.28 AM which reached at 11.40 AM, he said.
In the meanwhile, the CM's convoy passed at 11.39 AM, for which the traffic on the thoroughfare, where Vikas lay on the road, was halted by police, he said.
Had the police rushed Vikas, who sustained serious head injuries, to hospital on time, his life could have been saved, Mishra claimed.
"The area in and around the state Assembly is a high security zone given that the budget session is underway. Police should have called the Assembly's ambulance and rushed the victim to hospital immediately," the leader said.
"We are going to mount pressure on the government to book the policemen under IPC section 302 (murder)," he said.
Meanwhile, a senior police official said that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
"I have set up an inquiry headed by our Additional Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Sandeep Yadav to look into the incident. Action will be taken according to the ASP's findings," Deputy Inspector General of Police Raman Singh Sikarwar said.
On the alleged inhuman attitude of police, he claimed that two ambulances reached within 11 minutes of the accident to the rescue of victim.
Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognisance of media reports, the National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary, seeking a report within two weeks.
The NHRC observed that the contents of the press reports, if true, raise serious issues of violation of right to life of the young boy, insensitivity on the part of police personnel and medical negligence, the commission said in a statement.