KANPUR: A 50-year-old ailing woman died on way to hospital when her car was stopped before a flyover in the city when the special train carrying Ramnath Kovind and his entourage was passing through it on way to Kanpur Central railway station on Friday evening.
While Kanpur police commissioner has tendered an unconditional apology, President Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind have sent their condolence messages to the victim’s family.
Vandana Mishra (50), the head of the women wing of Indian Industries Association (Kanpur chapter), who had recovered from Covid-19 about one and half month ago, was being rushed to a private hospital in Sarvodaya Nagar by his son after she complained of uneasiness and nausea on Friday evening.
When their car reached Govindpuri flyover, traffic had been stopped as per the protocol for the President’s special train to pass.
Her family members allege that they pleaded with the policemen deployed at the bridge, but they didn’t relent.
The car could finally move only after the President’s special train passed through the flyover.
However, by then Vandana had become breathless and was declared dead by the doctors on reaching the hospital.
A resident of K block of Kidwai Nagar, Vandana, who had become quite weak after Covid infection, complained of anxiety and vomiting.
On Friday morning, her husband Sharad Mishra took her to a private hospital.
After undergoing some tests, she came back home.
In the evening, however, when she again complained of uneasiness, her son left with her for the same private hospital, but they got stuck in traffic before Govindpuri flyover.
Her last rites were performed on Saturday.
DM Alok Tiwari, Police Commissioner Aseem Kumar Arun and DCP South Raveena Tyagi attended the cremation ceremony at the Bhairavghat.
While President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind expressed their condolences over Vandana’s sad demise, the latter instructed the senior administrative and police officials that such a situation should not recur in future.
Subsequently, Commissioner Aseem Arun, DCP South Raveena Tyagi and DCP Traffic BBGTS Murthy visited her house along with the condolence message of the President and his wife and tendered an apology to her family members on Saturday morning.
The Commissioner also tweeted: “On behalf of Kanpur Police and myself, I am deeply sorry about the demise of Vandana Mishra.
This is a big lesson for the future.
We pledge our ‘route’ system will be such that citizens are held up for the shortest possible time so such incidents are not repeated.” Another tweet said President Kovind was disturbed by the incident.
Additional DCP, Kanpur South, has been asked to carry out an inquiry into the incident and a sub-inspector, Sushil Kumar, and three constables have been suspended.
DCP Traffic Murthy, meanwhile, said: “It would be probed whether the family members of the victim had apprised about a medical emergency to the policemen on duty and they were not allowed to proceed further,” he said.
There is a clear instruction of the commissioner that if there is any medical emergency then immediately the patient has to be removed from the traffic and sent forward, he said.
DCP Traffic further said, “Traffic was stopped on Govindpuri Railway Flyover for some time.
As per the safety protocols mentioned in the Blue Book, when a train passes through the rail tracks under a bridge, the vehicle movement has to stop on the bridge.” President Kovind, on a five-day visit to the state, arrived in Kanpur on Friday evening by a special train.
On June 27, he will visit his native village Paraunkh, besides Pukhrayan in Kanpur Dehat.
On June 28, he will visit the state capital before returning back to Delhi on June 29.