No vehicle to be stopped for checks unless there’s violation, tweets Karnataka DGP

DGP Praveen Sood said the police commissioner of Bengaluru City has been directed to implement the orders immediately.

Karnataka director general of police (DGP) on Monday said no vehicle can be stopped for checking of documents unless it is a case of a traffic violation or drunk driving. According to reports, the top officer’s statement came after people complained of harassment by traffic police on the pretext of document verification.

Representational image (PTI)

DGP Praveen Sood said the police commissioner of Bengaluru City has been directed to implement the orders immediately.

A Twitter user – while responding to journalist DP Satish over his complaints of a long queue in Bengaluru as traffic cops were “checking documents” – wrote, “When Praveen Sood was ACP traffic, he had banned stopping vehicles for checking documents. You could be stopped only for an offense. Now with Praveen Sood as DGP, stopping vehicles everywhere is a daily phenomenon!@Copsview.”

To that, the top officer replied from his personal handle, “I reiterate again… no vehicle SHALL BE STOPPED merely for checking documents unless it has committed a traffic violation visible to the naked eye. Only exception is drunken driving.” The official handle of Karnataka DGP also retweeted the post later.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Bengaluru recently, said that his “double-engine government” is working on every possible means to make Bengaluru free from traffic jams. He had added that his government is committed to linking the suburban areas of Bangalore with better connectivity.

He made the remarks while speaking at the inauguration of multiple rail and road infrastructure projects in Kommaghatta. "To make Bengaluru free from traffic jams, the double-engine government is working on every possible means including rail, road, metro and construction of the underpass, flyover."