Fed up with police inaction, 47-year-old Sakinaka resident launches his own investigation and zeroes in on the make of the car that ran over his brother and sister-in-law
Nirmala and Pratap Singh were killed in a hit-and-run on December 2 in Ahmednagar
To get justice for his brother and sister-in-law, who were killed in a hit-and-run on December 2 in Ahmednagar, Sakinaka resident Meen Bahadur Singh launched his own investigation, when he saw the police not even doing the bare minimum to move forward in the case. In his quest, he not only got the CCTV footage but also managed to get a broken rearview mirror of the accused's car. Despite that, the cops haven't moved beyond filing the case.
speaking to mid-day, Meen, 47, said, "My brother and his wife went to Shirdi on December 1. The next day, they went to meet one of our relatives, Harak Singh Bahadur, in Sangamner. At night, Harak dropped them off at the SMBT dental college, from where they were supposed to board a private bus to Mumbai. Around 10:34 pm, a speeding vehicle came from the wrong side of the road and rammed into the three of them."
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Meen Bahadur Singh (extreme left) with his friends at the accident spot, when they'd gone to collect the CCTV footage
He added, "My brother Pratap died on the spot, while his wife Nirmala and Harak, who were seriously injured, were taken to a nearby hospital. Harak was discharged a day later, but Nirmala was shifted to the Cooper hospital in Nashik and then brought to the Nair hospital. She had been kept on ventilator support throughout and on December 14, she succumbed to her injuries due to multiple fractures."
Personal investigation
A case was filed at the Sangamner police station on December 3. Meen repeatedly approached the cops. "I was told the investigations are underway, but there has been no development," said Meen, who then decided to take matters into his own hands. "I went out and got the CCTV of the incident and gave it to cops. I also got the right side rear view mirror of the vehicle, which had broken down after the accident. But cops did not seize the mirror. Then, I took it to an engineer to identify which car it was from. He said it was from a Tata Hexa. I went and informed the cops about this, but still got no response from them," he said.
The broken rear view mirror of the car that hit them
"I went to the Tata showroom in Sangamner, where I was informed that such mirrors are used in the Tata Hexa vehicle after all. I cross-checked with the Tata showroom in Saki Naka twice, whose staff confirmed the same. Once again, we went to the police station to request them to seize the mirror, but the officers told us they will do it whenever it is required," added Meen.
It didn't end there. Meen said, "The cops did the panchnama in the case 15 days after registering the FIR claiming they didn't have enough staff to do it since they were busy with the local elections. Now, I am hopeless, and doing whatever I can on my own to get justice for my brother and sister-in-law. Harak said, "Even my statement was recorded after more than a week."
'Hand over the mirror'
When mid-day contacted senior police inspector Abhay Parmar of Sangamner police station, he said, "The family members took the mirror with them without informing us. We have asked them to come and hand it over to us. We're investigating the matter after registering the FIR under section 279 (rash driving), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code."
Meen said the cops are not telling the truth, "The police is lying; they never asked us to hand over the mirror. However, on Friday [December 29] after mid-day called the senior PI for details, I got a call from the investigating officer of the case asking me to surrender the mirror."
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