Sweety speaks: Finally out of coma after six days, Noida hit-and-run victim says she wants to leave hospital

She calls for her mother frequently, asking for cold water. “Sweety has been drinking a lot of water after regaining consciousness… She keeps scratching her head and wants the bandages removed…,: said her mother Lalmani Devi. Lalmani does not leave Sweety alone for even a moment ever since she and her husband came to Noida from their village in Bihar. She says that once, when she was briefly out of the room, Sweety fell off the bed while trying to go to the bathroom.

The 22-year-old was hospitalised after she was hit by a car on New Year’s Eve

Though she is now out of danger, the operation on her leg is pending.

Hospital spokesperson D K Sharma said, “We have successfully done operations for her head injury and have moved her from the ICU. Now, we can be sure that she is safe. However, her leg operation is pending, so it will take 10 more days, after which we will be in a position to relieve her.”

Sweety’s father Shiv Nandan Pal (54) sits on a bed beside his daughter. Looking at her, he murmurs slowly, “Bhagwan ne ye kyon kar diya (Why did god do this?).”

Pal said he never came to Delhi even when his daughter secured admission to an engineering college, confident that she would manage on her own. “The furthest I have gone is to Arrah and Buxar… I am proud that my daughter is way ahead of other people in the family. Had it not been for this, she would have been preparing for her exams. We could not have managed this if not for her friends.” After the accident, her friends had pooled money to pay for treatment, and the Noida police, too, had donated a day’s salary.

Noida Police hands a cheque to Sweety’s father Shivnandan

Pal hails from a Kurmi-dominated village named Sarthua, around 30 km from Patna. “I farm on six bighas of rented land. You know what the condition of agriculture is. If Sweety had not managed an education loan, we couldn’t have paid her fees. We hoped that after her graduation, our problems would be solved.”

Asked if he was apprehensive to send his daughter away from home, he said, “As farming is not lucrative, I wanted my daughter to have a good, educated life. Even in Patna where she completed Class XII, she used to do everything on her own.”

Devi, however, rued sending Sweety far from home. “Every time she cries, I feel my heart has stopped. I do not know what will happen, I pray every second. I cannot sleep… I keep looking at her face,” she said.

Around 5 pm, a dozen students trooped in to check in on Sweety. Her friend, Ashirwad Mani Tripathi, remembered the day when Sweety won a silver medal in a 200-metre race in a zonal-level competition. “Very few girls at our institute are interested in sports, but Sweety was always at the forefront. Apart from athletics, she was a very good basketball player,” he said.

Sweety’s classmate Prateek Mishra, said, “She had two-three job interviews lined up.” Mishra and others expressed concern that no arrest has been made so far: “It is good that the police have supported the family economically, but we have not got justice.”