Man slips under bus wheel after cop allegedly tried to stop him
The accident caused a massive traffic jam on the Jeedimetla-Balanagar route, with numerous vehicles stranded.
Hyderabad: A 40-year-old man was run over by an RTC bus, reportedly while taking evasive action when a traffic police constable attempted stop him by grabbing his collar during a vehicle check near the IDPL junction in Balanagar on Sunday afternoon.
Locals who staged a protest at the site said the body remained on the road for nearly 20 minutes, and the police did not call an ambulance. When the protest grew, the Balanagar police reached the spot and allegedly lathi-charged the locals to disperse them.
Balanagar inspector T. Narsimha Raju identified the deceased as Joshi Babu, 40, a carpenter, residing in Rodamistry Nagar, Shapurnagar, in Balanagar. Babu is survived by his wife and two children. He was going towards Balanagar from Chintal on his bike when the incident occurred.
At around 12.55 pm, while the Balanagar traffic police were conducting vehicle checks for pending challans, traffic constable Gopal reportedly attempted to stop Joshi Babu. While attempting to escape, Joshi Babu lost control of the bike, hit another vehicle and fell on the road. An RTC bus of the Medak depot coming behind them ran over Babu.
“The incident occurred when the traffic constable tried stopping him by getting hold of his collar. Babu was wearing a helmet and everything was in place,” said Suresh, an eye-witness.
Locals alleged that the body was not moved from the site and even an ambulance was not called. “For nearly 20 minutes, the body was lying on the road as it was. Nobody moved it. They did not even try to cover it. We asked the police to check the CCTV footage and take action against the constable for what he did, but it has been four hours and they have not checked the footage yet,” said Suresh.
As a huge crowd gathered, there was a huge traffic jam for nearly four km from the accident site. The Balanagar law and order police reached the spot and allegedly lathi-charged the protestors.
Ramu, an eyewitness of the lathi-charge, said, “Is this how law and order situations are tackled? They were not even covering the body, and when people confronted them, they started lathi-charging.”
When asked about the lathi-charge, ACP G Hanumantha Rao said the police were only “trying to disperse the protestors” and denied claims of any lathi-charge.
“We only tried to disperse them because they were not moving from the road. They were not allowing the ambulance to enter the site to shift the body to the mortuary,” said inspector Nagaraju. However, visuals of the lathi-charging were widely circulated on social media platforms.
Asked about the traffic constable trying to grab Babu, Medchal traffic DCP K. Gunasekhar said, “Our constable did not try to catch him. That is a false claim. We have verified the CCTV footage of the area.”
The Balanagar police have registered a case under Section 106(1) (causing death by negligence, not amounting to culpable homicide) of the BNS against the traffic constable.
