Elphinstone stampede: ‘If I don’t stay with her now, who will?’

Says a 17-year-old boy about his injured mother gets us back to the same question, who is to blame now and what is the way forward from here

For the 17 year old Viresh Mahananda Sawant, the incident at the Elphinstone Bridge turned out to be a horrific one. His mother, Mahananda Sawant works as a housekeeper in a company in Parel area. As usual, she left for work in the morning, but unfortunately, she got stuck in the rail-bridge mishap.

Sawant is studying commerce in 12th Standard in Ambedkar College. He lives only with his mother in Slums in Ghatkopar. Her face is not bruised but she is complaining of severe stomach and chest pain.

As of now, Mahananda has been hospitalised in KEM Hospital today. Viresh is her only care taker and accompanying her in the hospital. Necessary tests have been run by the hospital.

“I didn’t get any call from the authorities. One of my mother’s friend said that the stampede has occurred. We should go and check as she hasn’t reached office yet. So we came here and found that she has been injured,” said Viresh.

“If I don’t stay with her now, who will? My father had run away when I was a kid. I don’t even know what he used to do,” added Viresh.  He is currently giving his semester exam and had three day’s holidays due to Dusshera weekend.