Man dies of heart failure ‘after being hit by cops’, Pimpri police initiate probe

A resident of Thane, Shinde and his son Nilesh had left the city in the early hours of Friday, reportedly with a patient and his relatives in their ambulance, and were heading towards Shrigonda in Ahmednagar district.

“I was driving the ambulance. Police stopped the ambulance at Talegaon-Dabhade toll post around 11 am. Even after telling them that we were carrying a patient, they did not allow us to go. Accusing us of carrying seven passengers in the ambulance, they demanded Rs 5,000 from us. They even hit my father with a baton and allowed us to go only after we gave them Rs 3,000. Meanwhile, my father started feeling unwell. I took him to a few hospitals on the way from Chakan to Shikrapur Road. But due to the COVID-19 panic, he received no treatment. We finally reached a hospital in Shikrapur, where the doctors said my father has died,” said Nilesh.

But when asked about the name and details of the patient they were purportedly carrying in the ambulance from Thane to Pune, Nilesh said he didn’t know that as his father had all the details. Nilesh also said that he did not know where the patient and his relatives went from Shikrapur.

Police sources said there was a suspicion that the ambulance was carrying passengers instead of patients.

Meanwhile, a case of accidental death was registered at the Shikrapur police station as per procedure and Naresh Shinde’s body was taken to Sassoon General hospital for a postmortem.

Officials of the Sassoon Hospital confirmed that Shinde died of heart failure. The report, however, revealed “evidence of coronary atherosclerosis with blunt injury.”

“Viscera of the deceased has been preserved for further investigation,” hospital officials said.

Additional Commissioner Ramnath Pokle of Pimpri-Chinchwad Police said an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police has been appointed to conduct an inquiry into this matter.