NAGPUR: In yet another instance of bureaucratic buck-passing, Kalmeshwar police of Nagpur rural and Wadi cops of the city engaged in an
inordinate tug-of-war over jurisdiction in the case of a fatal mishap on Wednesday. The two police stations wasted crucial time in deciding who would register the offence.
Kalmeshwar police, which did not reach the accident spot for long, took more than eight hours to register the offence for reasons best known to them. One person succumbed to his injuries in the mishap while the other was serious.
A car headed towards Kalmeshwar rammed into a truck coming from the opposite side near Gondkhairi. While the trucker and his cleaner fled the spot, by-passers were stunned to see the condition of the seriously injured occupants of the car. "The driver of the car somehow escaped as his side of the vehicle was not badly affected. Police arrived when we were shifting the injured to a private hospital," said eyewitness Anand Gopal Chaure who were returning from Selu along with his friends.
Vilash Wandile, senior inspector of Kalmeshwar police station, stated that the matter should be registered at Wadi police station. The claim was countered by senior inspector Yeshwant Ghodekar of Wadi who pointed out that the incident had taken place well within the limit of the rural police which was skirting its responsibility.
Kalmeshwar police station had no clue about the incident till late night. Nor was any offence registered, neither was the identity of the injured person established. A constable of the police station claimed that an officer had gone to the government medical college and hospital in the evening but was not contactable till late night.