Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, January 19: Manoj Kumar, the only survivor of the BMW crash who was lying unattended for all these days, now has company. While his father and brother arrived on Sunday, a Lodhi Road police station home guard joined them on Monday afternoon. Manoj has been lying in All India Institute of Medical Sciences with both his legs broken.
Manoj, whose legs had been operated upon last week, had somebody to attend on him after his visually impaired father Narsinghcharan Mallik and brother Kamlakant arrived here on Sunday afternoon. Manoj’s friend Ajay, who also belonged to his village Jaspur in Cuttack district, had gone to fetch them. “We have borrowed money from someone here for my father and brother. They have nothing,” said Manoj.
The death of Mehdi Hassan was news to Manoj. He said he was very close to Gulab, who had also died in the crash. He was curious to know about Gulab’s father when told that he had attended Mehdi’s burial. When asked about the aid package of Rs 25,000 offered by an NGO, Manoj said: “I know nothing about it.”
Recalling the night of the accident, Manoj said: “We did not want to go to the policemen when they stopped us. We thought that we would miss our train. Then we decided to stop anyway as we did not want trouble. Only one policeman came upto us while two others remained where they were. One of our bags was being opened and checked when the accident happened. But I did not realise when it happened.”
Manoj has four younger sisters back in Jaspur. “I used to send them Rs 600 a month. I used to eat and sleep at the dhaba where I worked.”
His father nodded in assent when asked if he would fight a case in court.
