Bollywood writer-director Charudutt Acharya recently made a Facebook post about his hit-and-run experience, which has gone viral.
Bollywood writer-director Charudutt Acharya recently made a Facebook post about his hit-and-run experience, which has gone viral. Talking about the apathy he had to endure and what his life looks like since the incident, Acharya did not mince words about the reality of such cases.
"In 1998 I was 28. Newly married. A baby was on the way. Small independent writing- directing jobs were trickling in. I was happy. October 1998, at 2 in the afternoon, not too far from American Bakery (where the Salman Khan thing happened), a young woman from Pali Hill (incidentally daughter of a film industry bigwig) rammed her car full speed into the auto that I was travelling. The auto turned turtle. My left leg was an unrecognizable mess. The young lady and her friend, who had got out of the car, saw the mess, sat back in the car and took off," his post said.
He was picked up by a gym instructor and taken to a hospital.
His post further said his pregnant wife was made to run around and the police finally tracked the woman. "She was never convicted. I did not have medical or life insurance. I got some basic compensation from the car and autorikshaw insurance companies. I had three more surgeries over the next few years. I have never walked straight since. I live with this partial permanent disability, making do with a walking stick," his post added. His only regret is not being able to play football with his children.
Acharya said the accident cost him professionally, financially, emotionally and psychology. "I belong to the upper middle class background and I am educated. I could pull myself out of this and saw the corruption in front of my eyes. In this country, you can't get into the legal system with one leg. I have nothing against Salman Khan. The objective of making the post was to get a perspective on where we are going as a society. I am solely speaking for the victims of hit-and-run cases who have suffered because of the justice system," he said.
"People are bursting crackers and distributing sweets (celebrating Salman's release). What message do we get? You can kill if you have money? If you go to your dentist and he's drunk, will you let him operate on you? The whole thing would have taken 13 minutes if he had just owned up and taken the responsibility. People need to know the difference between a screen persona and a person. People defending him on illogical grounds makes me think if we are living in a feudal state. Where is our moral compass?"
Talking about the film industry, he said he didn't understand what everyone was scared of. "Can't they call a spade a spade? What will they achieve by closing ranks? I feel alone and sad today," he added.
He lamented the fact that nothing has changed since his own incident. "The victim should be focussing on getting better and getting his/her life back on track. The public prosecutors and policemen should follow it up. We need such a system. In all of this, it's the poor who get affected the most, they have nothing and nobody," he said.
Taking a strong stand, Acharya also said in his post, "There is a HIT and there is a RUN. A hit can happen due to various reasons... But a run happens when there are elevated levels of inhumanity and arrogance in the blood. A run happens when there is confidence in a corrupt system to back you up. A run happens when you know that money and 'Bhai power' can 'settle' things..."
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