Parmesh S Jain
The incident occurred few days ago and a passers-by recorded the video of how a delivery executive whose bike was towed away was struggling to save the towing charges and running behind the vehicle pleading to stop.
The vehicle was later stopped and after the executive spoke to the ASI,in charge of the vehicle got his bike back after the duo process .
People commented on the video and blamed the towing staff for their senseless action.
Taking a strong exception to this,Dr BR Ravikanthe Gowda,Joint Commissioner of Police Traffic,ordered an enquiry and suspended the operation of the vehicle.The ASI concerned was also withdrawn from the towing duties until further orders .
The incident also drew the attention of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai,who directed the Police Commissioner, Kamal Pant and the DGP, Praveen Sood to look into the matter and take necessary action.
Mr. Bommai also called a meeting with the officials concerned to look into the guidelines related to towing of vehicles and said we will change the guidelines and make sure that cops to be people friendly.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the State Government will completely review the existing vehicle towing system.We will review the system.
Earlier, towing was being done by the department itself and now it is being outsourced.Several incidents of skirmishes between the public and police have been reported,” he told reporters here after taking part in the Martyrs’ Day function.
Though this comes in the wake of a traffic policeman violently thrashing a woman for pelting stones at a towing vehicle, it is not the first time that citizens have expressed their ire over the manner in which vehicles are towed.
It may be recalled that few incidents reported as irritated motorists attacked towing staff on many occasions earlier .
Though there are SOP given for the towing staff, they would not follow and always in a hurry to tow vehicles and collect more and more fines.
