Bengaluru youth assaulted for trying to create traffic awareness
Synopsis
Ankit Chowdhary, a Bengaluru man was shooting a video of two-wheeler riders flouting traffic rules and riding on the city footpath, when things got ugly. A two-wheeler rider, who he was filming, assaulted him violently.
The incident took place on Monday, at around 10.40 am in Koramangala 1st Block, near the Flipkart office. Ankit later put up his post with the video of him being assaulted and the video has gone viral now.
Ankit continued to take video undeterred even after the man he was filming started hitting him and trying to break his mobile phone.
Even Bangalore Traffic Police have shared the video. The Koramangala police have discovered that the vehicle in the video is registered in the name of Hanume Gowda. The police are searching for him.
His Facebook post, which he updated with the latest development of him filing a complaint at the police station, says this:
I just got physically assaulted for taking a photo of a guy breaking traffic rules! Bengaluru Traffic Police BENGALURU CITY POLICE
Please share the video as much as possible!
This happened at around 10.40AM at Wipro Park signal near Flipkart (there were enough people in the jam to witness this). There are always a few folks who break the law and ride on footpaths etc and its always an inconvenience to pedestrians so I duly take photos and report them - in hope it will slowly reduce. Today's guy was an exception, as soon as I took the photo, he stopped his bike and started moving towards me to hit me. I realised he's gonna get aggressive and hence started taking a video. He also tried to smash my phone in hopes that the video/photos will get destroyed too. I think the mic stopped working somewhere there. Just the most unexpected, unruly behaviour I have ever seen.
Dear Bangalore Traffic/City Police, would like to file a formal complaint and this guy to be identified, charged and put through appropriate penalisation. Do help in the matter.
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Today I filed a complaint with BTP Adugodi station, Public eye and Koramangala Police Station (Bangalore City Police BCP hereon). Seems like Traffic violations will be booked for riding/parking on footpath. BCP says this is a non-cognizable offence so they have to take permit from court hence will let me know in 2 days. They wouldn't file FIR for that reason. Brings up few questions though -
1. It's probably not a cognizable offence, legally speaking, but the whole situation as a package brings up larger issues at hand which should be dealt with if we are to make any difference in society. (any lawyers wanna help out here?)
2. What happens can set precedents on how cases are handled or just people being encouraged to come forward, help society at large - or the reverse can happen. Hence the first point about larger issue.
3. No one came forward. People watched what happened. Its the first time I've experienced this first hand and I've to say, this is what seems to cause the Other People's Problem mindset - but I think most don't get that they/we are the other people. Awareness on 1 & 2 can bring awareness on this.
4. On a specific note, I think its great the initiatives that BTP & BCP are taking in regards to whatsapp, public eye etc. But there is a need for some synergy across departments as well as a relatively upgradation in their tech for citizens to come forward - rather, for it to be extremely simple to report anything to authorities (Any UX, Tech folks here wanna lead something to solve the problems?).
More when I have. Happy to discuss.
