Taming the wild bunch

Taming the wild bunch
By: Madhusudan Maney Date: 2010-02-23 Place: Bangalore


After two Iranian girls assaulted policemen for stopping them during a drunken drive campaign, city cops decide to go tough on unruly traffic offenders

Be careful before you deal with policemen henceforth. For stung by two incidents of the public assaulting policemen in three days, the cops have decided to act tough and maintain a no-nonsense attitude.


Police ki pitai: Two cops are manhandled by the public on an average day in the city. Representational pic

The decision comes after cops were assaulted first by two Iranian girls when they were stopped during a drunken drive campaign on Thursday, and again when a youth was stopped for riding without a helmet on Saturday. Mid Day question several policemen across the city, and this is what they had to say:

"Public manhandling police is not a new issue in the city. Many such incidents have occurred, but were taken very lightly. Police have taken up such type of issues only when it reached to a peak," a traffic policeman said.

Not the first time

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood confirmed, "This is not the first time that some one has assaulted a cop. On an average, we come across two such incidents in a month. Henceforth, if any one tries to manhandle or misbehave with the police, serious action will be taken against them."

He added, "Public must cooperate with the police. They don't follow rules and try to take law in their own hands. They break traffic rules, and when caught, they pay a fine, and are let go easily, which shouldn't happen."


Equality before law

Traffic Expert Prof M N Sreehari said, "Just because they are foreigners, they should not be let off easily. A person committing crime on our soil should be punished seriously. If they are let free, we'll be thought off as too lenient. Automatically, the crime rate will increase and even the locals will take it lightly, and the police will be considered useless. The city will become another Bihar."

Mahalakshmi Layout Police Inspector Anil Kumar H R said, "Prem Kumar was produced in the court today and has been remanded to judicial custody until 26th of this month."

Sub Inspector Kumaraswamy added, "Kumar was not riding the bike, but his friend Jagadish was. When I stopped and questioned Jagadish about the defective number plate and altered silencer, Prem Kumar intervened and created a scene. He punched me on my chest when asked for documents. It was then that the public came to my rescue and helped me nab him."