KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Mobile Magistrate North Kashmir on Wednesday said that there was no patient in the ambulance bearing number JK05A 3402 which was stopped by him at Seelu Sopore during a routine check.
Pertinently, on Tuesday (Dec 10), the driver of the ambulance had alleged that the patient suffering from cardiac arrest was ferried by him to SKIMS after the unnecessary halt at Seelu deteriorated his health.
Taking to KNS, Manzoor Ahmad Khan, the Mobile Magistrate Baramulla, Kupwara and Sopore said: “The ambulance which was halted for five minutes was ferrying no patient but few passengers including a woman.”
Mr Khan added that the driver of the Sumo Type ambulance was stopped by his team after he created nuisance by using continuous siren despite the directions to stop the siren.
“I was on my duty checking the vehicles at the spot. The driver indulged in heated arguments with my team members who came to me saying that there was no patient inside the ambulance. Later I directed my team to open its siren and let the vehicle go. The whole process took five minutes and the vehicle was allowed to go. Otherwise, I was well within my powers to seize the vehicle,” Mr Khan told KNS.
The Mobile Magistrate North Kashmir also clarified that the checking at Seelu was not conducted by the traffic police but by his team. “The traffic department has been unnecessarily been dragged into this issue. It was me who was conducting on road checking at Seelu.”
“I was ferrying the patient from Handwara to SKIMS. As I reached Seelu Sopore, the authorities stopped me and opened all the lights and siren of ambulance. They kept the siren near ambulance tyre and asked me to break the same,” Manzoor Ahmad, the ambulance driver working in Handwara district hospital had told KNS on phone on Tuesday.
He further stated that the authorities made the ambulance wait for more than 30 minutes and that he repeatedly requested the officials about the critical condition of the patient but to no avail. “I requested them several times that the patient is in a critical condition with a major cardiac attack but they made me to wait on the road side and smashed the siren.”
According to the ambulance driver a 60-year-old Abdul Rahman Dar, resident of Yansoo Handwara was admitted at District hospital Handwara under MRD number 11408, dated December 9, 2013. The doctors at the district hospital after diagnosing the patient of having suffered due to major cardiac arrest had referred him to SKIMS. But Dar later passed away at SKIMS on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said the ambulance was stopped by a mobile magistrate. “Will be formally taking up with High Court,” Omar tweeted on Wednesday.
