At about 7.30 pm this Friday, Nihit Sinha and some of his friends, all first year students from ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad were enjoying themselves at a dhaba, some half a kilometre from their college. Little did Nihit realise that it would be his last outing with his friends.
While walking back from the dhaba, a speeding bike hit Nihit on his head. His companions rushed to his help and took him to the private clinic at IBS only to discover that the clinic did not have a single doctor or nurse at that time. The nearest hospital to the campus (Olive Hospital) was some 25 kilometers away.
The college had three ambulances but there were no drivers in the campus on Friday. The students say they asked college authorities to help with some transport facility to take Nihit (who seemed to have a severe head injury) to the hospital. But since no help came soon, one of his batchmates got on to the wheels himself and drove Nihit to Olive Hospital.
However, by the time Nihit reached the hospital, he was declared dead. That was sometime after 8 pm.
“When Nihit was brought, his pupils were dilated and fixed, there was no respiration, not heart rate. We had taken an ECG which showed flat waves,” said Dr Afraa, one of the four doctors who attended to Nihit that Friday evening.
According to Prof C Srinivas, Dean (Corporate Relations) at IBS Hyderabad, We are not a hospital. We have two doctors on campus. One doctor leaves at 6 pm and the other one comes sometime between 6:30 pm to 7 pm. Unfortunately, the doctor was late on Friday. He further added, However, it would not have helped as his head injury was very severe.
The students say there is no proper medical facility on campus. On condition of complete anonymity, one student at the campus said, The school does have a clinic but it does not have proper doctors. They have only one nurse.” When asked if the college had some alternative transport facilities in case of emergencies such as this, Srinivas said that there were plenty of vehicles on the campus. “One of the ambulances had taken another girl to the hospital when this incident happened but the rest of the drivers were not in the campus.”
Blaming the students for not taking Nihit straightway to the hospital and for bringing him back to the hostel, Srinivas added, By the time the warden and the security came to know about the incident, it was almost 15 minutes. They wasted quite some time in chasing the motorcyclist who had hit the victim.
Srinivas said that the college has spoken to the police for construction of speed breakers outside the campus area. “However, the police tell us they are not sure whether the speed breakers will be built and marked properly and that might lead to more accidents. We have warned the students several times not to go outside the campus late as it is a very lonely place. But, the students insist on going to that place. “
Srinivas added, “The incident has happened outside the campus. We cannot change things outside our campus. We have sufficient canteen facilities on campus and never encourage students to go out of the campus at night. But, we will make more stringent rules in the campus now and will insist for speed breakers outside the campus as well.
The students alleged that the college authorities initially did not lodge any complaint with the local police. They say that the hostel warden who was asked to get the police to the hospital (where the victim was taken) was drunk and not allowed to enter the police station. Srinivas totally denied this and said that a senior police officer took charge of the situation and according to the police only the parents could file a complaint at the police station.
One of Nihit’s batchmates said, Nihit was a very down to earth person. He was very good at Economics.
While students allege that college authorities did not seem too perturbed by the incident, Srinivas totally denied this and said that in fact professors reacted with a sense of urgency and “I too reached the hospital by 8:30 pm.”
According to Shankarpally Police Station, a case has been registered against the motorcyclist. “The driver who was riding the bike that time might not be the owner of the bike. We are still investigating. The driver is injured. We will produce him before the court once he recovers, that is Monday or Tuesday,” said Shiv Shankar, sub-inspector of Shankarpally Police Station.