Top cop: No random checks of vehicle docs from motorists

Hameed Ashraf | NT
Bengaluru

Motorists in Bengaluru needn’t fear getting randomly stopped by the traffic police to check for documents, unless they have violated any traffic rule.

State DG&IGP Praveen Sood has once again reiterated that the traffic police officials should avoid randomly stopping vehicles unless there is a violation on their part. Earlier also the top cop had instructed the officials to adopt a more people-friendly approach and avoid such measures, which also holds up traffic.

However this time, the directives were reiterated after a motorist took to social media and shared his harrowing experience after some traffic police officers stopped his car to check documents and fined him without any valid receipt.

As per a statement on Monday from Bengaluru Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Dr B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda, the motorist, identified as Santosh Kumar, hailing from Kerala, was stopped by an ASI and a head constable attached to Halasuru Gate traffic police station on June 10.

Noticing that Kumar was carrying a wash basin in his car, the officers allegedly told him that he will have to cough up Rs 20,000 towards traffic violation at the court, or his vehicle will be seized. He was finally allowed to go after he paid Rs 2,500 without a receipt.

The incident was recently brought before the senior officials of the state police department including Sood and Gowda.

The two officers involved in the incident were identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector Mahesh D.C. and head-constable Gangadharappa, and they were suspended for dereliction of duty. The Joint Commissioner said that necessary action will be taken against them according to the law.

Following this incident, Sood had tweeted, “No vehicle shall be stopped only for checking documents unless it has committed a traffic violation visible to the naked eye. Only exception is drunk driving. I have instructed the Bengaluru police commissioner and Joint Commissioner of police for the immediate implementation of this.”

Free-loading cop

In another incident of high-handedness by men in khaki, Karnataka Rashtra Samiti activists took a video of a police constable while he was allegedly taking a food parcel from a hotel without paying for it. The hotel is located in the Vijayanagar police station limits in the city.
The video went viral on social media platforms, and netizens expressed their anger at the erring cop.