A 45-year-old man, Anil Jain, who was suffering from a heart ailment, died after being stuck in a traffic jam at Rajghat on Sunday evening. The family alleged that road was blocked to facilitate passage of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cavalcade and the police did not allow the ambulance to move towards G.B. Pant Hospital despite repeated requests. The Prime Minister’s Office has ordered an inquiry into the incident
Mr Jain was taken to G.T.B. Hospital after he complained of chest pain. He was referred to G.B. Pant Hospital but the ambulance got stuck near Rajghat as traffic movement was stopped for some time. When the ambulance reached hospital, the doctors declared him brought dead. “The doctors said that had he been brought 10 minutes earlier, there was a chance of saving him,” said Mr Jain’s nephew.
The police admitted that there was a road blockade in place at Rajghat but said it was probing the time when the call was made by the family and the timing of lifting of restrictions. “We are investigating,” said a senior police officer.
Hemant, a cousin of the deceased, met senior officers at the police headquarters to report the matter. “We called the police control room for help, however no one reached us,” said a relative. Mr Jain’s son Deepak said, “We called up the police control room. They did not help. They kept asking our location. Had we not been stuck for 15-20 minutes, my father could have been saved.”
This is the third such incident in the past one year. In July, the parents of eight-year-old boy Aman Khan blamed the Prime Minister’s security curbs for their son’s demise. They alleged that Aman died as they could not take him to hospital after roadblocks were erected during Mr Singh’s visit to Kanpur. In November last year, a 32-year-old man died at the gate of a hospital in Chandigarh as security for the PM’s visit hindered his access to medical treatment.