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Journalism of Courage
AURANGABAD, JAN 5: When Sandu Dehade (40) climbed behind the wheel of his dumper a week ago, he was determined to avenge the labourers’ complaints about his reckless driving. But even Dehade, who loved to hear the workers shriek with fear on his daily joyrides’ out of the city, didn’t have murder on his mind when he took seven labourers from Aurangabad and 10 schoolgirls and a teacher from Mumbai to their death on December 29, 1998.
However, somewhere between Aurangabad city and Paithan, where he was ferrying 25 daily wage contract labourers to work, blind rage blurred the line between sadism and murder. Twenty kilometres from the city at Bidkin, as Dehade hit the accelerator to taunt the frightened workers, his dumper ploughed through the right side of a bus carrying schoolgirls from Mumbai’s Sahyadri Vidya Mandir School on picnic here, and left a trail of blood, mangled flesh and wanton destruction in his wake.
The workers being treated at the Government Medical College and Hospital at Aurangabad toldThe Indian Express that Dehade used to deliberately race through traffic, brake violently and ram the truck into potholes, just to hear them scream. “This was his way of getting even with us for complaining about his savage driving,” says Usha Sulakhe (name changed), who like the other 18 surviving labourers, has been working for the same contractor for the last four years.
Dehade, now in magisterial custody at the Paithan sub-jail, was not inebriated when the accident occurred. This was confirmed by a breathalyser test taken after the incident, Bidkin police investigating the case say. He was clearly racing along the broad Aurangabad-Paithan Highway, as his dumper sped for an entire kilometre after tearing through the schoolbus and turned turtle only after hitting a tree. This group of 25 workers who Dehade transported daily out of the city to various worksites, had complained to the contractor only a couple of days before the accident. They also say he was fuming before getting into his truck thatfateful morning. Besides, two of the workers had also had a violent argument with him the previous evening. Revenge was definitely on Dehade’s mind, when he turned the key in the ignition that day.
“As soon as he picked us up from Osmanpura at 8.30 am daily, he couldn’t wait to cross the city limits so that he could drive at breakneck speed. He seemed to enjoy hearing us shriek as we oscillated like pendulums behind him, when the truck hit potholes, speedbreakers and careened through the heavy traffic on Paithan Road,” recalls Sulakhe. She says the workers used to brace themselves every morning when they clambered into the dumper, wondering what torture Dehade had in mind for them that day. Sometimes, when they protested, Dehade would simply drive at snail’s space and later enjoy the sight of their supervisor firing them for arriving late.
But a couple of days before the accident, Dehade’s tantrums had peaked and two of the labourers–Madhukar Hiwale (25) and Vishnu Awcharmal (25)–even fought with himphysically. They didn’t know it then, but the scuffle finally took them to the grave as they did not survive the mishap.
Vishnu Mhaske (50), who has worked for the contractor, K B Pathrikar, for 20 years, says he often mediated between the labourers and Dehade. “I tried to explain to him how interdependent the relationship between the labourers and him was,” Mhaske told The Indian Express, recuperating from a shoulder fracture. “He did listen to me on occasion and promised to mend his ways,” sighs Mhaske.
The dumper journey used to be particularly treacherous on days when the workers were carrying drums of tar, recounts Gangubai Kale, who escaped with minor head injuries. She says the workers used to quake with fear lest the truck skid off the road, thanks to Dehade’s sadistic ways.
Bidkin police have not yet taken statements from the surviving labourers, as most of them are still in hospital. Also, no one has turned up to bail out Dehade. Pathrikar has also not yet decided whether he will pay anycompensation to the families of the dead and the injured.
“Though I have been giving them a few hundred rupees for medical treatment, I have not thought of any compensation yet,” he told The Indian Express.However, he does admit that during the five years he had hired Dehade to drive his labourers to work, he had warned him several times following complaints. The last time was the evening before the accident.
