A Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Haryana, Darshan Nagpal, allegedly stopped an ambulance in Fatehabad on Saturday after it hit his car, causing the patient inside to die, ANI reported on Monday. “The man died after Nagpal stopped the ambulance for half an hour as it had hit his vehicle,” a police officer said.
The patient’s relatives filed a complaint following his death, NDTV reported. Naveen Soni’s relatives, Sitaram Soni and Arun Soni, alleged in their complaint that Nagpal had chased the ambulance down, blocked its way and refused to let it pass for 30 minutes. They said that by the time the ambulance finally reached the hospital, Naveen Soni had died.
“The doctor told us that if we had arrived [at the hospital] even 15 minutes earlier, the patient could have been saved,” Sitaram Soni said.
The BJP leader, however, claimed that he had allowed the ambulance to head to the hospital before speaking to the driver after his vehicle was hit. “There is no question of stopping the ambulance,” Nagpal said. “You can ask anyone present there. I believe in public service. How can I stop an ambulance?”
Nagpal also alleged that his driver had told him that the ambulance’s driver was drunk.
Senior police officer Jagdish Chandra said both sides had been asked to come to the police station for investigation into the case.
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