Kadamprasad Pan (75) fell unconscious at a bus-stop in Howrah. He was apparently denied medical help on time as two police stations in the vicinity — Bantra and Shibpur — fought over the jurisdiction.
Locals said Pan lay in the sun for nearly four hours before the traffic police took him to the Howrah General Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
“When I spotted the unconscious person, I was manning the crossing. I informed Bantra and Shibpur police several times, but they didn’t respond. Finally, I took him to the Howrah General Hospital. But he had died before we reached there,” said Jayanta Sinha, Traffic OC, Bantra police station.
Pan was a watchman at the Vivekananda Institute and was on his way to office after a short vacation, police said. He had taken a bus from Howrah station at around 6.30 am to Haldarpara crossing.
“Getting off the bus, he realised that he had forgotten some personal possessions on the bus and chased it briefly to get them back. Then exhausted, he sat on the roadside, apparently to recover his breath. But he fell unconscious. We repeatedly appealed to the Shibpur police to attend to him but they didn’t respond,” said a local resident.
Doctors at the Howrah General Hospital said Pan had probably suffered a stroke.
“It could have been triggered by exertion. We can’t say if it was a heatstroke,” a doctor said.
Howrah SP Neeraj Kumar Singh said he was unaware if the man had been left to die because of a jurisdiction dispute.
“I heard that a person died due to heat. If this (dispute between police stations) is true, it is very sad. I am looking into it,” Singh added.