Relatives of a road traffic accident victim in Garo Hills have accused police of manipulating the case in an attempt to help the person who caused the incident.
According to a complaint, a 5-year-old girl suffered serious leg injuries after a pickup truck (AS 17C 3414) loaded with bricks hit her on January 23. The driver, named as Rikcheng Ch Marak, was driving the vehicle in a “reckless and negligent manner”.
The girl was taken for medical treatment and the police, the relatives said, assured them that no FIR had to be filed as a case could be taken up based on the prima facie evidence and verbal testimony alone.
Despite attempts to follow-up with the police, months went by. The vehicle’s owner has reportedly refused to pay for the girl’s medical expenses.
The family later found out, they said, that no application for ex gratia compensation from the government was made by the police and they moved the higher authorities, though the officer in charge of the Rongram outpost requested the family not to.
The victim’s family received a report in June that confounded them further. According to this report, no FIR had been filed, the truck bore a different licence plate (ML 08H 3209), the truck driver had a driver’s licence (the family claimed he had none at the time of the incident), that a “compromise” had been reached by the vehicle owner and the father of the victim, despite the father being estranged from the family, and the names of the owner differed on different documents.
Relatives also say that the police involved in the case took no photographs of the vehicle or of the victim and no statements from eyewitnesses.
The family maintains that the police are guilty of a gross neglect of duty and/or assisting the truck driver at fault and vehicle owner.
“The victim who suffered catastrophic and life-altering injuries on her leg after being brutally hit and crushed by a Bolero pickup will be forever changed by the traumatic and devastating event, facing a lifelong sentence of limited mobility, constant pain, and a significantly diminished quality of life, unable to walk, run, play, or engage in everyday activities with the same freedom and joy as her peers, her future prospects and potential irrevocably altered, her childhood and adolescence forever scarred by the driver’s reckless and negligent actions and the police officer’s inexcusable and negligent response, which failed to hold the driver accountable and ensure justice was served,” the relatives said in the complaint.
