Mumbai: ‘We didn’t know who he was. We did everything out of humanity’

Hajra and Nazreen Shaikh who tried to save Faiz Usmani, at their house

It has emerged that a mother-daughter duo had tried hard to save the life of the man who died after being hit by a truck at Malwani on Thursday. The police said that despite following strict Roza, the two women who stay in a slum, ferried him from one hospital to another. They even offered to pay for the medical expenses, but could not save him as doctors at the first hospital they took him to, allegedly refused to treat him.

The man, 32-year-old Faiz Usmani, an engineer, was crushed under the tyre of a speeding dumper near Kanchpada Junction Link road at Malad West on Thursday afternoon. Usmani, who worked as a safety engineer on a Lodha Developers construction site at Evershine Nagar, was headed for some official work. He was waiting on his bike at the signal near Movie Times junction when the dumper heading towards Kandivli hit him.

What they did

The police said dozens of people watched the accident, but no one came forward to help him. Nazreen Shaikh, 22, and her mother Hajra, 55, were trying to hire an auto on their way back from a bank when they saw the accident. A tyre of the dumper had passed over Usmani's thighs. When people started screaming the driver stopped the vehicle and reversed it, going back over Usmani's waist. Nazreen and her mother saw Usmani in pain. The residents of Ambujwadi slum managed to stop an auto and with the help of the driver, put him in it.

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Zahid, Usmani's brother, shows a picture of him. Pics/Nimesh Dave

Speaking to mid-day Nazreen said, "I thought someone would accompany us with Usmani, but no one was ready. We took him to the Zenith Hospital in Malad West. My mother sat besides the driver and I stood in the gap between the seat and the meter. But the doctors at Zenith refused to admit him and told us to take him to Shatabdi Hospital. Till then Usmani was moaning in pain. Seeing him, my mother, with folded hands, begged the doctors to help. I also requested them to provide him with at least initial treatment. We were ready to pay the fees, but the doctor refused admission. We asked for an ambulance but they also refused to provide it."

She added, "Again we took another auto and rushed Usmani to Shatabdi Hospital at Kandivli where the doctor declared him dead. We didn't know who he was. We did everything out of humanity. We came to know about him after seeing his relatives and acquaintances in the hospital."

Accused on bail

Usmani belongs to a well-educated family with doctors and engineers. He used to work abroad and came to India during the lockdown. His wife is a doctor and they have two kids, a son aged 4 years and a daughter just two and a half months of age. "Our mother has been in trauma since the accident. Her pain increased when she came to know that the accused who killed her son was released on bail," said Usmani's elder brother Zahid. "We have arrested the driver identified as Mahabali Kishori Pall, 32, and have seized the dumper. He was produced before a court which remanded him in judicial custody," said Senior Inspector Pramod Tavde from Bangur Nagar Link Road police station.

6 April
When the accident took place