How will you solve murder if you can’t catch modified bike: HC to Chandigarh police

After being pulled up over spurt in snatchings, the Chandigarh police on Tuesday faced the Punjab and Haryana high court’s ire for their failure to nab those driving modified bikes on the city roads.

“How will you investigate murder cases, if you can’t locate a (modified) motorcycle,” the bench of acting chief justice AK Mittal and justice TS Dhindsa remarked, adding that every now and then such bikers can be seen moving around on the “noisy” bikes, but police have not been able to nab them.

The HC was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) — filed by Sector-15 resident Dr Bhavneet Goyal — seeking directions to the UT police to act against those driving bikes with modified silencers.

Silencers are altered or completely removed by some bikers to produce loud thump, which is illegal. Of late, it has become a nuisance in the city, especially during night hours. The situation has reached such an alarming state that many members of administrator’s advisory council have complained about it in various meetings.

‘Your competence is at stake’

“Nothing has happened on the ground. All reports are eyewash. Who is this person defying orders of the court? Your competence is at stake,” the bench said, adding that in the vicinity of his house in Sector 4, justice AK Mittal often hears the noise of modified bikes. The court termed the nuisance an “insult” to the HC orders and said that it amounts to contempt.

“In southern sectors density is high... difficult to locate the offender. Why this is happening in northern sectors? Go door to door,” the court told the police, seeking a report next Tuesday.

The data produced by police in court in March showed that highest number of challans (336) this year for riding bikes with modified silencers were issued under the Sector-11 police station jurisdiction that covers Panjab University, Sector 15 and PGIMER.

Under the Sector-3 police station (Sectors 1-10), 30 challans were issued while 59 were issued in Sector 26, which houses several educational institutes. Police have challaned 690 people in 2018 and 778 in 2017 for riding bikes with non-functional silencers. The data about southern sectors has not been given to the court.

In recent past, police functioning has come under severe criticism for failure in reining in traffic violators and deteriorating law and order condition. On March 21, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Nilambari Jagadale was summoned over increasing number of cases and last week court warned of summoning the UT home secretary. On last Friday, court had summoned director general of police TS Luthra over botched up probe into the Haryana Civil Services Judicial exam paper leak.