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Hit by train, veggie vendor loses both legs during eviction drive
According to locals, the Indira Nagar police station in-charge, Shadab Khan, and head constable Rakesh chased the street vendors on GT Road.
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Kanpur: A street vegetable vendor lost both his legs on Friday evening after he was hit by a train while allegedly trying to pick his belongings, from a railway track, thrown away by police, in Kanpur’s Kalyanpur area. The police were reportedly clearing the spaces illegally occupied by roadside vendors there.
Additional DCP West Lakhan Yadav said, “Irfan, alias Laddoo, was selling vegetables close to the railway track. His scale fell on the tracks as he hurried to vacate when the police came. He has been hospitalised and his treatment is going on.”
According to locals, the Indira Nagar police station in-charge, Shadab Khan, and head constable Rakesh chased the street vendors on GT Road.
One of eyewitnesses said the policemen hurled his scale, weights and vegetables towards the railway tracks. Irfan went to pick them up when he was hit by the train.
“The two policemen left the scene immediately without attending to the injured Irfan. Other officials arrived after the control room was informed. He has been taken to LLR hospital,” the eyewitness said.
Irfan’s father Salim Ahmad, who drives an autorickshaw, said both of his son’s legs were severed on the spot. “He is just 20 years old. They could’ve been a bit civil if they wanted to clear the area,” he said.
The locals alleged that the local police charged ₹50 per day from each vendor and yet they kept driving them away. Additional DCP Yadav denied the charge and said clearing the area was part of a routine exercise.
