Wheel Locks On Parked Cars:
Unmesh Gujarathi
Editor in Chief
Seventy eight years old heart patient collapsed from trauma caused by bouncers, and could not be rushed to hospital due to the locked wheels, heartless building management.
July 25th, 2024 will always be remembered as the worst day in the lives of the Bhagchandani family. The matriarch of the household Mrs Pushpa Mohan Bhagchandani (78 years old) collapsed due to sustained and deliberately obnoxious insensitivity by bullies appointed by a developer, Zire Rushi Constructions, at The Kollage residential complex.
Pushpa nearly lost her life thereafter, when efforts by her son to rush her to hospital were blocked by the builders’ men who had quickly placed clamps on the wheels of the family’s two cars along with another couple of vehicles belonging to another resident family.
At 2.30 pm, 3 burly bouncers, recently hired by the developer appointed management of the building complex, knocked on the door that was answered by Pushpa Bhagchandani and threatened to place clamps on the wheels of the family’s car parked at the officially designated, allotted parking slot, assigned after a due legitimate lottery process a year ago.
The builder’s high-handed refusal to provide the necessary stack keys forced the second family car to be parked on the podium area without causing inconvenience to other residents.
Pushpa was taken aback because this gated building complex enjoys an intercom facility whereby the residents are assured that nobody may knock upon the door or ring their bell without them being provided prior intimation by security posted downstairs. To her shock Pushpa, a heart patient, answered the doorbell to be faced by three burly bouncers who threatened to lock the wheels of the two vehicles.
Her son Manoj and daughter-in-law Hiral were taken aback and recorded the conversations of the second instance when the bouncers landed up unannounced at their doorstep and repeated their mischievous intentions to lockdown the family’s vehicles.
The video of Pushpa (available with Sprouts) clearly evidences her bodily collapse with her medical papers, issued by the Kokilaben Hospital, also duly verifying her near brush with death (induced coma) due to the delay in her being transported for medical care even as her medical status deteriorated following the threats issued by the builder’s men.
The doctor at the hospital informed Manoj that his mother would have slipped into a coma had she been brought to the hospital even 15 to 20 minutes later. Right after Pushpa collapsed the family was unable to rush her immediately, blocked from utilizing their parked cars that had been clamp locked by the builder’s team who had first initiated the threats leading to Pushpa’s collapse on 25th July late evening.
Another resident family in “The Kollage” residential complex at Andheri (E) in suburban Mumbai has also literally been under siege at their residence, not due to heavy downpours over the last week but, because their cars were illegally locked.
Site Manager Sanjay Vala is a law unto himself and refused to unlock the vehicles to rush the owner to hospital even in the wake of the medical emergency. Says Manoj Bhagchandani, “On July 25th my 78-year-old mother was unable to cope with the attitude of the unannounced bouncers who landed at our doorstep thrice and threatened to lock our cars. She suffered a bout of severe hypoglycemia (altered sensorium and breathlessness for over an hour) and we were forced to wait for a cardiac ambulance to arrive since my wife was not at home and my other parked car was illegally under clamps courtesy of Sanjay Vala despite it being parked in its designated and allotted parking spaces (since 18th July 2023).”
Says his wife Hiral, “We are grateful to God that my mother-in-law is now recovering and back at home. However, even after a week of registering our complaint with Andheri (E) police station and even after the PSI Bade of Andheri (E) police station called Mr. Vala and, informed him he had no right to impose clamps upon the vehicles of residents of the building, the site in charge Vala refused to comply even after a week of holding us to ransom and, literally, under house arrest. After PSI Bade’s intervention after dialling 112 one of our cars was unclamped on 27th July 2024 but the illegal clamp on three other cars in the society continued till Saturday August 3, 2024,” Hiral notes.
JT Comm of Pol of Mum traffic dept Anil Kumbhare when contacted expressed his surprise as how any private agency could possibly place clamps upon vehicles wheels as only the traffic dept is authorised to, whether on roads or within a private building. He emphasized that this was not done and was illegal and immediately ordered his staff to rush to the building and immediately unclamp the illegally locked down vehicles numbering 3.
Also Read: The Rise and Fall of Rashid Naseem: A Tale of India’s Biggest Land Scam.
This was duly done by the Joint Commissioner’s staff including PI Yogesh Tandle, who was on leave, but still ensured that his staff rushed to the building and unclamped the vehicles and seized the same. The Bhagchandani and Desai families are sincerely grateful to the traffic police for their week-long forced lockdown even as the civic corporation has been consistently turning a Nelson’s eye to their complaints against developer for two years.
The Kollage building affairs in-charge Sanjay Vala when contacted said, “that the issue of the wheel clamps had been resolved as of Saturday after the traffic police visited our premises”.
When persistently asked about why these clamps were placed over a week despite being directed by the local police that it was illegal he responded and said “Abhi woh sab khatam ho gaya hai,” without answering the query. (All now over and done with).
Unmesh Gujarathi
Editor in Chief
sproutsnews.com
epaper.sproutsnews.com
businessnews1.com
moneynews1.com
twitter.com/unmeshgujarathi
https://www.linkedin.com/in/unmesh-gujarathi-4125481a/
Contact No.: 9322 755098