A rogue trucker twice rammed his trailer into a stationary car at the Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza and threatened to run the owner over when confronted, watched by a Calcutta cop who refused to intervene citing jurisdictional restrictions.
The incident occurred around 8.15pm on Sunday, when the Honda City was standing in one of the lanes marked for cars at the toll plaza. At the wheel was a senior editor with The Telegraph, accompanied by his family.
“There was a truck ahead of me. As I waited for my turn at the toll gate, I wondered how trucks were being allowed to queue up in a lane meant for cars,” the journalist said.
Little did he know that worse would follow.
“Suddenly, I felt something hit my car from the back. I turned back to find a trailer had crashed into my car’s rear. Such was the impact that the car lurched forward. Seconds later, the trailer hit my car again,” he recounted.
On seeing the damage to his Honda City — the boot was severely dented and the left tail lamp was shattered — the journalist accosted the trucker. His family members clicked pictures of the trailer’s number plate on their cellphones.
“Angry as I was, I wanted to pull the driver down from his seat. I demanded to see his licence and he responded with a glare. He was clearly unrepentant. The next thing I knew, the truck was moving towards where I stood,” the journalist said.
“Had it not been for my wife, daughter and niece, who warned me that the trailer was moving, I would have been sandwiched between it and my car.”
The journalist, who suffered a shoulder injury when the trailer hit his car, immediately got back into the driver’s seat and took a U-turn from a gap in the lane divider to reach the police kiosk on the approach to the toll plaza on the Calcutta side.
A constable was standing there with a walkie-talkie in his hand. Around four other policemen in khaki were with him.
Although the constable and his colleagues in khaki apparently saw what had happened, the journalist had to narrate the entire sequence of events to him.
“Time was ticking away, but I noticed that the trailer was still in the queue. So there was still hope that he would be caught,” the journalist said.
Narration over, he asked the constable whether he wouldn’t stop the trucker before he got past the toll gate. “Woh truck to Bengal area mein ja raha hain… hum yahan se kya kar sakte hain? (The truck is about to move into Bengal police’s area… what can I do from here?)” the constable replied.
The journalist again pleaded with him to make an effort, but the constable wouldn’t budge. “At least use your walkie-talkie to speak to your colleague on the other side of the toll counters,” he suggested.
“Wahan kisse baat karega? Woh to Bengal area hain (Who do I speak to there? That is Bengal area),” pat came the reply.
The trailer was past the toll gate and fast moving out of sight. As the journalist and his family despaired over the police’s attitude, the constable gave a piece of unsolicited advice. “Lodge a complaint with Hastings police station.”
He didn’t mention that Hastings police station was 4km away from Vidyasagar Setu. “I felt angry and helpless…. I decided to dial the number of the joint commissioner of police (headquarters) Jawed Shamim, who is a friend. The call did not get through. I next tried the police commissioner’s number and managed to speak to him,” he recounted.
The call to R.K. Pachnanda immediately got the Lalbazar machinery working. “Barely a minute after I spoke to Mr Pachnanda, I got a call from the Lalbazar control room. The OC (officer in charge) of the control room asked me if I had the trailer’s number and I promptly gave it to him,” the journalist said.
When he requested that a police team be sent to the toll gate, the officer said “someone from Hastings police station” would reach in “no time.” An officer did arrive, albeit after 20 minutes.
“On hearing about the incident from me, the officer’s first reaction was that the cop at the kiosk should have stopped the trailer. He also said the constable could have at least relayed a wireless message to his colleagues,” the journalist recalled.
“It was shocking to learn that these police kiosks don’t have a jeep or a bike to chase someone, if required,” he said.
Around 10.15pm, the senior editor received a call from the officer who taken his complaint, informing him about the FIR number and that Hooghly, Howrah and Burdwan police had been alerted about the trailer. But the trailer was probably already out of reach by then.
“The officer told me that identifying and stopping the vehicle would have been easier had it been daytime” the journalist said.
Till late on Tuesday, there was no trace of the vehicle with a Nagaland registration (NL-01A 4670) despite the city police supposedly alerting several highway police outposts.
The trucker would, of course, have been in custody on Sunday night itself had the constable at the kiosk done his duty.
“I was told that there might be a possibility that the trailer’s Nagaland registration is a fake one,” the senior editor said.
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