Gurgaon: An on-duty
traffic contable died on his way to the hospital after complaining of uneasiness in his
stomach on Thursday morning.
Bansi
Lal, 42, a resident of Bhawani Khera tehsil in Bhiwani, had been working with the Gurgaon police force for the past six years after retiring from the
Army, said cops.
On Thursday morning, Lal told his colleague posted in the same area, that he was unwell and feeling severe pain in his stomach. Lal sat down on the road near the Sector 40 red light where he was posted and had to be taken to a hospital in an auto, which his colleague found.
On the way to the Civil hospital, Lal lost consciousness and doctors declared that he was brought dead.
According to Sukhbir Singh, a traffic
cop, he had dinner with Lal on Wednesday and he had seemed perfectly fine. “He didn’t complain about anything. We are very surprised that this happened,” he added.
After news of the death spread, a number of senior police officials, including DCP (South) Ashok Bakshi reached the hospital to review the situation. A traffic cop said that Lal was transferred to his latest posting at the Sector 40 red light six months ago and prior to this, he was posted at Mahavir Chowk near the bus stand.
Lal has been survived by his wife and two sons, one of whom is a constable with Delhi Police. The other is still studying. The family arrived in the city on Thursday.
According to police, a medical examination has confirmed the cause of death to be a heart attack but the official postmortem report is awaited. “The death appears to have been caused by a heart attack,” said Dr Pawan, an emergency doctor at the Civil hospital.
Traffic cops told TOI that they start on the job at 7am and leave only around 8-9pm. “We have been asked to stay as long as the traffic
flow is heavy and so, we stay till 9pm,” said a traffic ASI, requesting anonymity.
According to cops, the traffic in the Sector 40 area is heavy and sitting down is not an option and they have to stand at duty up to 16 hours.
Gurgaon traffic police had been short-staffed until 150 cops were recently added to the force, which has brought the number up to 650. According to senior traffic officials, the number is still too less to meet the needs of the city.
Traffic cops also alleged that they got very few breathing masks and it was difficult to use the same mask, every day. As a result, traffic cops are often spotted managing traffic without masks.
This is not the first time that a traffic cop has met death while on duty. A special police officer was mowed to death by an SUV which was being chased by cops in January.
