No Bail For ABVP Activists Who Snatched Judge's Car To Take Man To Hospital

A court in Madhya Pradesh has denied bail to two ABVP activists arrested for allegedly forcibly taking a high court judge's car parked outside a railway station to rush an ailing man, who was the vice-chancellor of a private university, to a hospital.

Special Judge for dacoity cases Sanjay Goyal on Wednesday rejected the bail applications of ABVP's Gwalior secretary Himanshu Shrotriya (22) and deputy secretary Sukrit Sharma (24), observing that one seeks help with politeness and not with force.

According to additional government prosecutor Sachin Agrawal, Shrotriya and Sharma were arrested on Monday and charged under MP Dakaiti Aur Vyapharan Prabhavit Kshetra Adhiniyam (MPDVPK Act), an anti-dacoity law, after they snatched a car's key from its driver at Gwalior railway station and took an ailing man to hospital.

They two were produced in court on Tuesday which remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days, he said.

Citing the police case diary, judge Goyal on Wednesday also observed that an ambulance had reached the place by that time. An ambulance is the appropriate vehicle to transport an ailing person to the hospital, the court said.

Meanwhile, calling the action against the activists "injustice", the ABVP said it would launch a statewide agitation.

The outfit's MP secretary Sandeep Vaishnav said, "The health of a passenger on a train became serious on Monday. The ABVP men who were travelling from Delhi to Gwalior on the train passed on the information to our functionaries at Gwalior station." The activists deboarded the sick man at Gwalior station but no ambulance reached for his help for around 25 minutes, claimed Vaishnav.

As the man's health condition was deteriorating, the ABVP activists rushed him to a hospital in a car parked outside the station but he died, he said.

"Had he reached the hospital in time, his life could have been saved. Later, it came to light that the vehicle in which the man was rushed to the hospital belonged to a high court judge," Vaishnav said.

"They tried to help an ailing man. Now no man will help anybody in need," said Vaishnav.

ABVP's lawyer Bhanu Pratap Singh Chauhan told PTI over the phone that they moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday.

"We are going to launch a statewide agitation democratically against the injustice to our leaders," Vaishnav added.

The dead passenger, Ranjeet Singh (68), was the vice-chancellor of a private university in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi, Gwalior's Inderganj City Superintendent of Police Ashok Jadon said.

"The passenger died of cardiac failure, according to a preliminary post-mortem report. We handed over the body to his family members on Tuesday after the autopsy," said the police official. PTI COR LAL MAS NR

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)