No one should die due to VVIP security, says family

LUCKNOW - A grieving Kanpur family whose only son died because he could not be taken to hospital quickly due to restrictions for the prime minister’s visit Friday made a emotive plea that no one should suffer a similar fate.

The family told reporters here that the injured seven-year-old Aman Khan’s life could have been saved if police and local officials had allowed them to reach the hospital on time July 3.

Aman was critically injured after a steel gate fell on him.

“It is quite understandable that restrictions have to be in place for the prime minister’s high security. But shouldn’t there be some provision to carry a sick or dying human being to hospital? Someone must take a call on that,” said his mother Usha Sharma Khan during a brief visit to Lucknow Friday.

“We had to spend nearly 45 minutes extra on the roads while negotiating a crowded alternative route to the hospital with the result that our only son bled to death. We were told by doctors that Aman’s life could have been saved had we reached the hospital just 10 minutes earlier,” she said.

Aman’s father Tahadud Hussain Khan and mother Usha Tuesday shot off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention to prevent such tragedies in future.

“We have sought to draw madam Sonia Gandhi’s attention to the plight of common citizens during VVIP visits,” said Usha, a junior employee in one of the Kanpur-based ordnance factories.

After the steel gate fell over him July 3, Aman was being rushed by his parents to Kanpur’s leading Regency Hospital. But a road block on account of the prime minister’s visit delayed them and the boy bled to death.

Holding the bleeding child in their hands, the parents made a fervent appeal to the cops and administrative officials on duty, but to no avail. Finally, wading through a thick traffic jam along a detour, when they reached the hospital, the child was declared “brought dead”.

An uncontrollably sobbing Swati, the victim’s 16-year-old sister, has still not got over the sight of her dying brother.

“I cannot forget how my poor brother went on bleeding and we could not reach him to the hospital simply because policemen would not allow us to cross over to the other side of the road.

“Even though we know we cannot get our Aman back, our only appeal to Sonia Gandhi is to evolve some mechanism to ensure that another child does not lose his life under similar circumstances in future.”