Bangalore: Ensuring law and order and keeping criminals at bay often puts members of the police force in piquant and sometimes odd situations, but all the training and the experience of his fledgling career didn’t quite prepare a policeman on sentry duty at the RT Nagar police station for the events that unfolded in front of the station in the wee hours on Monday. Hussain Sab, however, proved more than equal to the task and the tale, which could so easily have ended in tragedy, ended on a joyful note.
Constable Sab was on duty at the door of the station when, at about 1.30 am, he noticed Manisha, heavily pregnant, walking on the road towards the station along with her husband, Sonu, and her mother.
Manisha appeared to be in great pain and seemed in desperate need of medical attention. When they were in front of the station Manisha’s mother ran towards Sab urging him to help.
“She wanted help to get her daughter to hospital,” Sab said. “It was in a bit of a fix. Since I was on sentry duty, I could not leave the station just like that, but since the woman was pregnant and obviously in excruciating pain, I walked towards a few autos parked near the station woke up a driver and asked him to rush them to a hospital.”
Bundling them into auto and thinking the woman would soon get the help she so desperately needed, Sab returned to his post at the station. He was startled, however, when the auto driver returned almost immediately after. Wondering why the man had returned so quickly, Sab went out again and questioned the driver.
“The driver told me that he had barely started off when the family told him to stop the vehicle and they all alighted,” Sab said. “The driver, thinking it was because they had no money to pay for the fare, turned around and came back.” Sab took out µ200 from his pocket and was just handing it over to the driver to pay for the fare to get the trio to a hospital when he heard the woman scream in pain from a few feet away. She was lying on the pavement with her family members around her.
“Even before I could decide what to do, the woman had delivered a baby on the pavement where she was lying,” Sab said. “I was too stunned at the turn of events and it took me some time to come to terms with the situation.”
Sab, of the 2012 batch, was jolted into action when Manisha’s mother requested a pair of scissors. He rushed into the station, informed the station house officer of what had happened and began frantically searching for a pair of scissors. He finally managed to find one. On Wednesday, both baby and mother were doing fine.
Manisha was grateful to Sab for the help he had rendered. “We came from Madhya Pradesh two months ago in search of a livelihood and do not know anyone here,” Manisha said. “My husband also finds it difficult to communicate with the auto drivers. The policeman was a good Samaritan.”
Manisha revealed that they had gone to the BBMP Maternity Hospital in Ganganagar, but it was closed. “We knocked on the doors and shouted for doctors, but no one stepped out. I was literally crying in pain.”
Subsequently, the three walked towards RT Nagar police station. En route Manisha’s mother tried to get an auto to take them to another hospital, but in vain. Manisha went to the BBMP hospital later that morning and got herself admitted.
The hospital authorities refuted allegations that they did not open the door when Manisha came knocking the previous night.
However, the hospital in-charge (who did not want to be named), said, “When she came the next day we did not collect any money from her. We work 24/7 and while the hospital is partially shut at night to ensure the safety of patients, the main door is always open. Maybe, the girl’s family thought the hospital was closed and walked away the previous night.”
