City doctor among seven booked

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 6

There is hardly any system adopted by the Bathinda police to check the rising accidents on roads. However, when any family member of accident victim raises hue and cry after fatal road accidents then they are booked by the police without wasting of time.

A resident of Gehri Buttar village succumbed to his injuries on April 4 after he was hit by an unchecked speedy vehicle around a month ago on Dabwali Road near a bus repair workshop owned by the Badal family.

The victim, Harbans Singh, a Class IV employee deployed with the Irrigation Department, was returning towards his village on February 25 on a motorcycle when the accident occurred.

The relatives of the victim had alleged that lack of any traffic policemen and unchecked movement of high speedy vehicles and plying of large-scale illegal vehicles were the reasons behind such mishaps. They claimed to spend over Rs 5 lakh upon the treatment of the head of their family.

“Besides the unberable heavy expenses incurred upon the medical expenses, we also came under huge debt as we recently got one of my brothers married and constructed a house by taking a loan in the name of my father,” said the wailing son of the victim, Jaskaran Singh.

The family members with the help of the Lok Janshakti Party held a protest against the sorry state of medical affairs, huge amounts of money extracted by the giant hospitals and unsafe roads.

The protesters, however, were dealt with an iron hand by the police and they were forced to run away from the venue of agitation.

Besides protesters, the police have also registered a case against a city doctor on the charge of instigating the victims’ family.

As per the FIR registered at the Kotwali Police Station, the police have registered a case under Sections 389 (Putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion), 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment), 283 ( Danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) and 120-B (Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death) of the IPC.

Those booked are identified as Kiranjeet Gehri, president of the Lok Janshakti party, Jagdeep Gehri, Tarsem Gill, Master Gobindpura, Swarna Devi, Veerpal Kaur, Resham Singh and Dr Jagmal.

Demanding action a private hospital for allegedly performing an ‘unnecessary’ head surgery on the accident victim, who died after being in coma for around 35 days, the deceased’s family members, along with other city residents, staged a protest in front of the second gate of the Civil Hospital yesterday, thus blocking the way to the private hospital.