Family accuses Smriti Irani of turning blind eye to dying man

The family members of a doctor killed in a road accident allegedly involving Smriti Irani have accused the Human Resource Development Minister of looking away from the dying man and driving off.

The allegations, however, were strongly refuted by the Minister’s office, a man claiming to be an eyewitness and the local police. All of them said neither was the victim killed by a car belonging to Ms. Irani’s convoy, nor did she turn a blind eye to the victim.

The controversy started almost two days after the accident on the Yamuna Expressway as the 14-year-old daughter of the victim Ramesh Nagar alleged apathy by the Minister. The accident happened near Mathura when Nagar, his daughter Sandli and nine-year-old nephew Pankaj were riding a motorcycle. According to Sandli, their motorcycle was hit by a car belonging to Ms. Irani’s convoy.

“All the three of us fell off the motorcycle and suffered injuries. I was the first to rise and saw her [Ms. Irani] come out of her car towards us,” Sandli said. “Seeing my father bleeding, I begged the Minister with folded hands to help us. But she plainly refused to help,” she said. She went on to say that even as she was begging for help, another car belonging to the Minister’s convoy again hit her father who was trying to rise on his feet.

“We lay bleeding on the road as she [the Minister] drove away. A passerby called an ambulance and we were shifted to a hospital over half-an-hour after the accident,” Sandli told The Hindu.

In the FIR too, Nagar’s son Abhishek has stated that Ms. Irani ignored the victims. Abhishek, though, was not present at the accident spot.

This version has been contested by the Minister’s office which issued a statement that the Honda City car involved in the accident had “nothing to do with the Minister’s cavalcade.”

“Rather, the Minister directed the SSP, Mathura, to arrange an ambulance immediately so that the injured could be given medical treatment at the earliest (sic),” the statement read.

SSP Rakesh Singh told The Hindu that the owner of the Honda City car (registration number DL 3C BA 5315) was identified as Dimple Arora, a Delhi resident.

“The driver had abandoned the vehicle and fled. We have sent a team to Delhi to trace the car owner,” he said.