One cop can’t remember,one can’t forget

Bandappa Mordi,47,a traffic constable for 23 years,has spent the last two months at home,doing nothing but watch television. Mordi,posted at Vakola traffic division,was knocked down on December 22 by a biker who had jumped a red light and was speeding to avoid being caught. Mordi suffered multiple fractures in both legs and the left hand.

Like PSI Dinanath Shinde who lost his life after being hit by Nooriya Haveliwala,these two policemen were doing their duty when rash drivers changed their lives forever.

Darade does not recognise anyone,not even his wife or kids. Sitting restlessly on his bed,he shifts between lazy naps,often with his eyes open as “he is scared of anything and everything now”,says his wife. Medical records say he is also suffering from paralysis of the right eye,fracture of the chest.

A friend,who trained with him in the 1992 batch,has come visiting but Darade doesn’t recognise him either. The friend,with Tilak Nagar police station,breaks down.

It had taken Darade 22 days to come out of a coma. Inside the ICU,“his fate would change every three days,as we did not know if he would come out alive,” says Sunanda. She now spends her day watching every move of his,waking at random hours in the night as he puts up a fight.

“He behaves like a 10-year-old,very violent and stubborn. We have to agree to whatever he says. If he says your name is something,you have to agree. You cannot correct him or he becomes restless and becomes violent,” says Sunanda,adding he keeps opening the door and running down every few hours.

“Since we live in a police colony,people are very co-operative and coax him and bring him back. It’s a fight we have to endure for six months as the medical team says it will be some time till he regains his memory,” she says. “How do you explain anything when you are tending to the man you married in his worst period and he does not even recognise you by your name?”

At Mordi’s Kandivali residence,he says: “It is true that traffic police officials face such dangers. What I felt bad about was that in my case,it was no accident but a deliberate act.”

The biker had apparently dodged a colleague and when he neared Mordi,he started weaving left to right,which confused Mordi.

“I stepped right in his path and he slammed into me.” The impact broke Mordi’s left shin in six places and he was flung off,landing on his left hand and breaking it in four places,shattering the right kneecap shattered and the breaking the shin in two more places. The biker,20,was caught some distance ahead.

Mordi said,“The incident when the traffic officer was run down by the drunken driver reminded me of that day. After surgery,I was in hospital for a week and the doctors claim it would be six more months before any signs of recovery.”

Like Dinanath Shinde,Mordi is the sole earning member of his family.

His wife Lakshmi says the family has so far spent Rs 15,000 on medical expenses and might need more. “The department paid for the surgery but the rest,like the plaster and some medicines,will be on us and the expenses will continue,” said Mordi.

With expenses running up to Rs 3 lakh,Darade’s family has taken a loan. The police welfare gives insurance and compensation for select hospitals. The hospital that Darade was taken to that night (by a crowd) is not in that list,making the family uncertain of clearing the bill.

Mordi alleges the arrested biker is not cooperating in the matter of compensation from the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. “Some documents regarding insurance are needed from the accused. I cannot do anything on my own about it.”

In Darade’s case,the driver has confessed he had been speeding for a dinner date with his girlfriend. He kept the date after the accident.