Mumbai: In what can be termed a mockery of the victims, the Mumbai police have further incensed the sentiments after indulging in a merry go round. One foot over bridge that connects two ends of D N Road, falls in the jurisdiction of two police stations — Azad Maidan and Mata Ramabai Ambedkar marg(MRA).
Even after such a big tragedy, wherein six people died and 31 are injured, Mumbai police has stuck to its bureaucratic methods for even registering a First Information Report (FIR).
Despite a major portion of the bridge, near the Times of India building is a part of Azad Maidan jurisdiction they insisted, the MRA police file the FIR. This passing the responsibility in times of a human tragedy occurred in GT Hospital in front of the doctors.
An eye witness in GT hospital said, “When the doctors called the police to sign the legal papers related to the postmortem, officers from both the police stations were reluctant to sign them. Each said the other would do it, since the spot came under the jurisdiction of the other police station.”
This stand-off led to a dispute between the policemen in the presence of a doctor. As the foot over bridge falls under the jurisdiction of police station as well as in Azad Maidan police station’s jurisdiction. Officers of both police stations were just passing the buck to each other.
Embarrassed by the attitude of the policemen, the senior police inspector of MRA police station Sanjay Kadam, approached Azad Maidan Police station as a complainant and forced them to file the FIR. However, no person has been named in this FIR.
Moreover, the FIR was registered on Thursday late night, against ‘officials responsible’ for the mishap under the sections of the Indian Penal Code death by negligence (304 A), causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others (337) and 338.
Even in these tragic circumstances, where the lives of citizens have been endangered, the police stuck to their flimsy bureaucracy and senior police officials covered up for Azad Maidan police. “Since Sanjay Kadam was the first to reach the spot, it was mandaotry for him to file the FIR, which he has done and the Azad Maidan police have registered it,” said a police official.
Police have made it clear their investigations will be separate and not connected with the BMC internal inquiry. “We sent our officer to the BMC to get all the documents connected with the bridge. Once we get the report from BMC and all the related documents, we will conduct our investigations independently,” said police officer.