A 30-year-old woman from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu was seriously injured on Monday after she fell off her scooter while trying to manoeuvre around a flagpole of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, The Hindu reported on Tuesday. Rajeswari’s legs were then crushed by an oncoming truck.
The incident came on the same day when the Madras High Court granted conditional bail to Jayagopal, the main accused in the death of 23-year-old Subhashri, who died when an AIADMK hoarding fell on her in September.
CR Sivan, a relative of Rajeswari, also known as Anuradha, said she applied the brakes after the iron flagpole tilted on the road. The woman lost control of the scooter and fell down. Another two-wheeler was hit by the lorry that ran over her, he said. The incident took place around 9 am when Rajeswari was travelling to work.
Onlookers took Rajeswari to a hospital, The News Minute reported. “She was admitted to a nearby private hospital where a seven-hour-long surgery was performed,” Sivan said. “We were told that the nerves of one leg had been badly severed in the accident. The other leg was completely fractured. She was still unconscious on Monday evening.”
Sivan said that Rajeswari was the sole earning member of her family. She worked in the accounts section of a hotel at Chinniampalayam area of Coimbatore. The police called another employee of the hotel to the police station, and asked him to state that the accident was not caused by the flagpole, Sivan alleged.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan told The Hindu that the cause of the accident would be investigated.
A case has been registered against the truck driver, Murugan, who is currently on the run. No action has reportedly been taken against the AIADMK workers who had set up the flagpole without obtaining prior permission, the Hindustan Times reported.
It is not clear why the flagpoles were erected. Soon after the incident, however, all flagpoles were removed from the area.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday said that he was unaware of the accident. “The incident hasn’t come to my knowledge yet,” he told ANI. “High Court ban was against the banners, not the flagpoles.”
In September, the Madras High Court had criticised the ruling AIADMK for failing to implement its order banning political hoardings in the state. The court had then said there was “zero respect for lives in this country”, adding that it had “lost faith in the government”.
The High Court had even asked Palaniswami to make a statement to party cadre ordering them not to put up such hoardings.
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