Bengaluru: Good deed doesn't always pay, as this 33-year-old auditor found out. Mr Prince Xavier, who was trying to intervene and save a man from an enraged mob, was allegedly assaulted by an unidentified man.
When he desperately called the police control room for help, the men on duty told him, “We don't have a chopper to fly in and rescue you. Stop calling us so many times. We are stuck in a traffic jam and will reach the spot soon.” When this Jeevan Bima Nagar resident looked for help, even the road rage victim who he was trying to help fled the spot.
Mr Xavier, who hails from Kerala, was heading to the Thippasandra market to buy provisions on Monday evening when he noticed a commotion near the Ayyappa Temple.
“A crowd had gathered around a West Bengal Registration Wagon–R car (WB20G) that belonged to a Hewlett-Packard employee. It was involved in an accident with an autorickshaw (KA03 AB 0373). The people were trying to smash the windshield of the car. As a bystander, I offered to help the HP employee and told him to resolve the matter amicably,” Mr Xavier told Deccan Chronicle.
“I tried reasoning with the autorickshaw driver, who had called local residents and had surrounded the man in the car. As the situation was getting worse, I tried to inform the police when an unidentified man punched me in the face. I started bleeding from my lower lip. He hit me again in the jaw and I fell on the road,” said Mr Xavier.
Mr Xavier got through to the police control room, but help arrived only 40 minutes later. “When I started calling 100 asking them to send help, the ERT (emergency response team) told me, ‘We don't have a chopper so that we can fly and come for your rescue. So stop calling us so many times. We are stuck in a traffic jam and will reach the spot.’ When the team finally reached the spot, they took me to the Jeevan Bima Nagar police station. Despite the melee, I had managed to take a video of the local residents who had surrounded the car and the man who assaulted me,” Mr Xavier said.
But he had to wait for another 20 minutes at the station to narrate the incident and for the entire duration of his stay at the station he was not offered first-aid.
He said, “The constable was not ready to listen to the complaint with empathy, while the others did not offer me first-aid. The policeman on duty was busy counting the money he had got as a token of appreciation for finding a lost wallet.”
He said, “When the constable finally leant an ear to me, I told him that I had a photo and video of the man who assaulted me. But the policeman, without even looking at my phone, said that it was impossible to trace people from such a big crowd. He told me that if I could get the name and address of the assaulter, the police can take action. He then asked me to leave.”
Disappointed with the response at the police station, Mr Xavier has approached the higher-ups to get justice. When DC contacted officials at the police station, a senior officer said, “We will get in touch with the victim and take appropriate action.”
