In a shocking show of apathy, the body of a 27-year-old accident victim remained on the road for over four hours due to a dispute over jurisdiction between police from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Rahul Ahirwar had left home for Delhi and was crossing the road when an unidentified vehicle ran him over. Residents of the area gathered at the spot after the accident and informed the Harpalpur police station in Madhya Pradesh. The cops reached the spot and said it comes under the jurisdiction of Mahobkanth police station in Uttar Pradesh's Mahoba district. They then left.
When the villagers informed the Uttar Pradesh police station, they shrugged off the matter and said it was the Madhya Pradesh police's job. Residents then blocked the road and started protesting, the body still at the accident spot. Eventually, four hours after the accident, Madhya Pradesh police recovered the body and sent it for autopsy. Only after this did the villagers clear the road and traffic movement was restored.
Visuals from the spot showed the victim's family members crying next to his body on the road. "My cousin died of an accident. This area falls under Madhya Pradesh, but the body has been on the road for hours now because no one is ready to take responsibility. A Madhya Pradesh cop who came scolded us and said this does not come under their jurisdiction. We want the autopsy to be done at the earliest so that we can proceed with the last rites. We want the vehicle responsible for this crash to be identified," the victim's relative Ramdeen said.
The victim's family said Rahul had married recently and was travelling to Delhi to work as a labourer. The accident, a relative said, happened around 7 pm. The body was eventually removed from the road around 11 pm.
