E-Paper
Traffic police on wrong end of quick getaways, violent reactions to law
When cases of assault of traffic police officials had seen a spike in 2019 during the tenure of former police commissioner K Venkatesham, the police purchased body cameras which helped record these incidents. However, the cameras seem to have taken a backseat in the recent years
PUNE The case of an IT professional’s arrest in a case of attempted murder of a traffic policeman has brought forth the recurrence of grievous assaults on traffic police officials.
The arrested man was identified as Prashant Shridhar Kantawar (43), a resident of Mohammadwadi in Hadapsar.
“This man is an IT engineer and is obviously quite educated. His car was flagged down and our system showed a past violation for which he was asked to pay-up as per the prescribed protocol. That enraged him so much, as is the case in most such cases, that he did this. Now he is in police custody for five days as the case is serious. Now we will recreate the crime scene, retrieve CCTV and build a proper case. The injured official was in the hospital overnight and has injuries on his arm, leg, and back,” said sub-inspector Gajanan Bhosale of Mundhwa police station who is investigating the case.
A complaint in the matter was lodged by Sheshrao Jaybhay of the traffic division of Pune police. Jaybhay was, unfortunately, not the first victim this year in Pune.
A 42-year-old man was remanded to judicial custody by a local court in Pimpri for dragging a traffic policeman on the road after his hand got stuck on the arrested man’s motorbike along Wakad-Hinjewadi road in April.
The arrested man, Sanjay Eknath Shedge (42), a resident of Adhale Khurd area of Maval, Pune, was riding on a Hero Honda Pleasure vehicle around 5.30pm on Friday along Wakad-Hinjewadi road. Ingale stopped him in order to check his papers at the nakabandi he was manning.
The policeman’s hand got stuck in the carrier attached to the back of the vehicle when the accused tried to run away. He was chased and arrested by the local police. The man was booked in a case registered at Wakad police station.
In January, constable Ravindra Namdev Karvande (30), working with the Chakan traffic division of Pimpri-Chinchwad police was assaulted with an iron rod in Talegaon-Chakan chowk by two for directing them to move the container truck.
The two men identified as Rohit Babu Salvi (20), and Harshdeep Bharat Kamble (22), both residents of Kalyan, Thane, were remanded to judicial custody and a case was registered against them at Chakan police station.
When these cases had seen a spike in 2019 during the tenure of former police commissioner K Venkatesham, the police purchased body cameras which helped record these incidents. However, the cameras seem to have taken a backseat in the recent years.
