A man who was trying to replace a fallen barricade around a dangerous manhole in Hyderabad was killed after a speeding car rammed into him.
The police have said that the man, identified as Mohammed Zahed, was trying to re-erect a traffic warning barricade kept in front of the manhole after it had been toppled over by another passing vehicle.
The incident took place in the evening on Tuesday,12 July, in Chaderghat in Hyderabad which is a busy area in the city.
CCTV visuals of the incident show Zahed making his way to the divider of the busy road, where the partially open manhole was located and trying to put back the sign.
Zahed is seen crouching with his back to the road trying to fix the sign on the open manhole when a speeding car runs him over.
The video shows that it was either raining or had just stopped raining, and the roads had water on them.
Zahed, who was an employee of Sohail Hotel in Malakpet, was admitted to Osmania General Hospital but later succumbed to his injuries.
Visuals from the spot of the incident show the dangerous manhole that Zahed was trying to warn commuters about. Half of the cement block that covers the rectangular manhole is broken, and the steel frame of the cover has been exposed.
A part of the cement block covering the manhole is dangerously protruding and has the potential to cause fatal accidents.
A police official told The News Minute (TNM) that the cover of the manhole had been removed as there was electrical work going on, and though there had been a barricade kept near it to warn people about the same, the barricade fell down after an autorickshaw knocked it over accidentally.
"Electrical works were being carried out, as a result of which they had kept aside the cement cover. Acknowledging the threat it was posing to motorists, we had sealed that portion of the road using barricades two days ago. On the day of the accident, just fifteen minutes before, an auto-driver rammed into the barricade. Noticing this, the victim went to re-erect the barricade which was on the ground, so that others would not get involved in an accident. But he did not notice the vehicles coming and a speeding car hit him," said Chaderghat Station House Officer P Sateesh.
The police have filed a case under Section 304 A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. "We are trying to locate the car using CCTV cameras. Further investigation is underway." The poor lighting due to the incessant rainfall has also been blamed for the accident.
GHMC Ignored Cmplaints
Amjed Ullah Khan of the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), has alleged that numerous complaints were filed asking the Hyderabad civic body, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), to fix the open manhole on the road, but their complaints went unheard.
He has demanded that the GHMC be booked for murder and negligence of duty. He has also sought that GHMC officials be arrested for not attending to Zahed’s complaints about the manhole. He also asked the Telangana government to announce compensation of Rs 10 lakh and a government job for Zahed’s family, as he had died trying to warn others about the dangerous manhole.
(This has been published in partnership with The News Minute)
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