Man ‘bleeds to death’ outside Pink Police Booth in Ghaziabad

A 22-year-old man bled to death as police personnel looked on outside a police outpost in Sanjay Nagar, where he lay for nearly an hour, his friend and family have alleged

A 22-year-old man bled to death as police personnel looked on outside a police outpost in Sanjay Nagar, where he lay for nearly an hour, his friend and family have alleged. Ghaziabad police said on Tuesday that an inquiry had been opened into the conduct of its personnel in the incident.

The incident allegedly took place in the afternoon on June 12 and videos of the victim, bleeding profusely, lying on the road outside a Pink Booth were circulating widely on social media on Tuesday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The incident allegedly took place in the afternoon on June 12 and videos of the victim, bleeding profusely, lying on the road outside a Pink Booth were circulating widely on social media on Tuesday.

In it, two women police personnel can be seen looking on and a number of passersby watching on as a man lies on the road. According to police, the man was later taken to a hospital in an ambulance, also seen in one of the clips, but he succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Police identified the man as Raj Kumar, a resident of nearby Guldhar.

HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.

Friends and family of the man allege that he was lying there for over an hour, however police denied this and said police and an ambulance arrived at the location within a few minutes.

The exact sequence of events leading up to the incident were not entirely clear with police as well as the man’s friend and family members giving different versions of what happened.

Ram Kishan Singh, the station house officer (SHO) of the Madhuban Bapudham police station, told HT that the entire incident unfolded in around 18-19 minutes.

The man allegedly had an argument with an auto-rickshaw driver over the fare and the driver took the vehicle to the Pink Booth to register a complaint. Police personnel told them to go to a police post instead. The man then “punched the glass gate”.

“This left him injured, and he collapsed on the road. This happened around 2.56pm, and 3-4 minutes later our Cheetah mobile patrolling bike arrived. A couple of minutes later an ambulance also arrived, at around 3.07pm. It was called by the auto driver,” said the SHO.

Pink Booths are all-women-managed police outposts that were created exclusively for women.

The SHO added that the injured was taken to a hospital where he succumbed after 40 minutes of treatment.

Rohit Kumar, the man’s friend, told HT he had punched the gate “out of anger” after “women police personnel did not entertain his complaint and locked the gate from the inside”.

“He remained lying on the road outside the booth for about one hour to one-and-half hour, and no police personnel came to help him. He finally died,” Rohit Kumar told HT on Tuesday.

Chinta Devi, the man’s mother, said that she rushed to the hospital after the incident but was not allowed to see her son.

“The policemen at the hospital drove me away. My son went out for some work, and some people in an auto beat him up. He went to the booth to seek help, but they turned him away. He then hit the glass door in anger, and he fell down with a severe injury. He remained lying on the road for over an hour, but no one came to help him,” Devi added.

“An inquiry is underway into the incident, and the role of the policemen at the Pink Booth is being inquired into,” assistant commissioner of police (Kavi Nagar) Siddharth Gautam told HT, adding, “The entire sequence of events and videos will be checked. A complaint was also taken from the family of the deceased man, and an FIR was registered on Tuesday evening.”

The FIR has been registered against an unidentified auto driver and other unidentified persons under BNS sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) at Madhuban Bapudham police station.

In an official statement, Upasana Pandey, the officiating assistant commissioner of police, said the victim had been inebriated.

The victim got married last year and his wife is eight months pregnant. His father has been bedridden for the past two years due to an illness and his older brother is differently abled, his friend said.