Rise in traffic violations blamed for assault on Gurugram cops

Over the last 15 days, five policemen, managing traffic in the city, were assaulted by violators in four separate incidents. Three of these incidents were reported last week.

Officers on the ground attributed these incidents to traffic violations, which, they said, are fairly rampant in the city.

Traffic constable Subhash Chand and his colleague were on duty at the Bakhtawar Chowk signal on July 26 when a 55-year-old man in a Honda Civic did not move his car even after the signal turned green.

When Chand went to check on the issue, he found the man behind the wheel in a drunken state and smoking. Even as the traffic constable got into an argument with the motorist, the latter managed to drive off.

The two officers chased the car and caught up with him near the next signal. At this point, the accused assaulted the policemen and tore off their uniform, according to the FIR filed at Sadar police station. The man was arrested and later released on bail.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (traffic) Sulochna Gajraj said that since on-duty traffic officers are tough with commuters and motorists in the event of a violation, chances of an argument or an altercation remain high.

However, the DCP denied a rise in the number of such incidents.

Asked why four such cases were reported in 15 days, she said, “Due to the passage of the Kanwariyas, the flow of traffic is disrupted. Commuters, who are at the receiving end of such disruptions, often lose patience. Also, the streets are flooded in the event of rain, bringing traffic to a crawl. All these factors could have contributed to these incidents.”

Subhash Boken, the spokesperson for Gurugram police, said, “While four such cases could be reported in a day, there could also be none in a month. This isn’t a trend.”

Boken said these are routine incidents that traffic police personnel have to deal with.

At Sohna Chowk, next to Sadar Bazar, on Sunday, ASI Balbir, who was manning the signal at the time, pointed to a line of parked motorcycles, saying, “See that? They are parked under the no parking board. But if we issue fines to their owners, they will argue with us.”

“Whenever the situation gets tense, we back off,” the officer with 29 years of experience said. “It is an everyday thing.”

“The road is very narrow and traffic is very high. What will we do?” another officer chipped in.

After the July 26 incident in Bakhtawar Chowk, there were three similar incidents.

On Wednesday, an officer was allegedly assaulted by a 22-year-old college student. The accused was arrested and released on bail, police said.

In another incident last Monday, an auto driver was arrested for allegedly assaulting a traffic police officer at Ambedkar Chowk. He was later released on bail.

On August 5, a traffic constable was allegedly assaulted by three people on two motorcycles, near the traffic signal at South City 2. The trio was arrested later and sent to jail for 14 days.

Manning a junction close to the Gurugram police commissioner’s office, an officer with seven years of experience, said that shoddy infrastructure also doesn’t help their cause.

He said that often, the traffic signal at the junction stops working and they will have to manage traffic manually.

“If a couple of vehicles jump signal together, we are only be able to catch one of them. Then the ones caught question us on why we let the others go and an argument follows,” the officer said.

First Published: Aug 13, 2018 07:10 IST