By Pushpit Narula:
“My heart was ripped on May 5, 2012 in agony. I was told my wife had passed away with my unborn child. You will have to stand in front of a speeding BMW to feel what I felt when I saw her. My wife is no more, my mother-in-law has multiple fractures and is critical, my father-in- law has a broken backbone and I have a fractured pelvis. There’s disbelief, there’s anger and then there is frustration .Is this what Gurgaon is all about? Is this how cheap life is to people? ’’
These were the words of Shailesh Shetty ,a man who lost the ‘purpose of his life‘ – his 3 month pregnant wife Kshama, when a speeding BMW racing at 150 km/hr hit their Indigo car, injuring all its occupants and killing Kshama , the driver and YES , an unborn soul. The accused is college going 18 year old, Suraj Sherawat, son of a wealthy businessman. What happened next was 100% predictable. It’s evident, the police botched up the case on purpose. Finally, 10 days after the incident, Suraj himself surrendered just to get bail in 30 minutes by paying a bond of Rs 50,000.
IS LIFE SO CHEAP? OH YES , IT IS CHEAPER THAN THE URGE OF THIS SUPER DAD’S SON TO THUMP THE ACCELERATOR OF HIS CAR ASSUMING HE’S ON SOME FORMULA ONE TRACK.
13 years after the infamous BMW hit and run case, Sanjeev Nanda, who ran over and killed 6 people, got a reprieve from the SC. He spent less than 2 years in jail. He will not have to return to jail but needs to do COMMUNITY SERVICE for 2 years. He needs to pay Rs 50 lakh within 6 months, to be used for road victims. Both these cases are open and shut cases; still the wheels of justice are yet to be turned.
In India, 1, 35,000 die in road accidents, highest in the world. That comes to 11,250 per month. It comes to 389 people dying every day in road accidents .Every 2.33 seconds, a person is dying on the road. We can understand the gravity of these statistics after hearing about the two cases.
“More people die of road accidents than by most diseases, so much so that the Indian highways are among the top killers of the country” Justice V K Krishna Iyer said in a ruling in 1970, which is so true even today. The message that is being sent out by the courts is that if you are powerful, if you are corrupt, you need not bother. You can cock a snook at the common man in this country again and again and again. CRIME, CORRUPTION, COMPENSATION, CASE CLOSED-these are the 4 C’s of how things proceed in India. But this is not the case everywhere.
Anuj Bidve was killed in UK in a senseless act a few months back. His psycho killer was convicted and was jailed for life in 5 weeks’ time, just 5 weeks. London bombing was one case which was huge. There was so much evidence so many accused, yet the trial was over in just 3 months .The courts functioned in three shifts; examined, cross-examined each and every witness. We definitely need to learn a lot from these examples.
Whining about the problems is not a solution, what we need is a definite measure. We need to do a swot analysis of the problems and arrive at measures we can adopt. For example not bribing to get a driver’s license, undergoing proper driving tests, learning civic sense and keeping our egos aside when driving.
Let’s not tear apart families. Let’s act responsibly. Because if we won’t act responsible, then expecting the world to change is like finding a needle in a bundle of hay. Preaching and cribbing have no impact on the ears which are shut, have been shut and will always be shut. If you think it’s wrong and worth fighting for then get ready and step out in the streets and you would be surprised to find like minded people. Let’s fight together so that families remain intact and the world becomes lot more sensible to live in.