Mumbai man booked after viral video shows 7 kids riding as pillion passengers on scooter

A viral video circulated online, showed the man riding the two-wheeler without any of the children wearing helmets.

Mumbai traffic police apprehended a man on Sunday after he was seen riding a scooter with seven children as pillion passengers in a viral video.

(L) The man seen riding scooter with children in the viral video. (R) The man was arrested by Mumbai police on Sunday.

The footage, circulated online last week, showed the man riding the two-wheeler without any of the children wearing helmets. It was recorded on Mumbai central bridge (east), and shared by a Twitter user on June 20, who demanded action and captioned the video, "This irresponsible maniac is riding with seven children on a scooter. He should be immediately arrested for risking the lives of seven young children….”

Five days following the incident, the police successfully traced the man and filed charges against him under the appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code. “This is not the kind of ride we endorse! The rider endangered the lives of the passengers and others on the road. The accused rider has been booked under Section 308 of the IPC, pertaining to the attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” the Mumbai traffic police said sharing a blurred image of the man and his scooter.

Maharashtra recorded approximately 15,000 fatalities in road accidents during 2022. Out of these, over half of the fatalities, amounting to 7,700, involved individuals riding two-wheelers. The majority of these deaths were attributed to head injuries resulting from the failure to wear helmets, as per the state transport commissioner, who released the data on Saturday.

The data from 2022 saw an increase of approximately 2,000 more road accidents compared to the pre-Covid-19 figures from 2019.