BENGALURU:  While many policemen may get swayed at the mere mention of the name of a politician or senior officer, an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) attached to the Chikkaballapura traffic police station went ahead to penalise a driver for over-speeding even after the violator dropped the name of an Additional Director General of Police (ADGP). In turn, ASI M Venugopal was congratulated by the ADGP himself. PS Sandhu, the Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, called Venugopal and praised him for discharging his duty.

The incident happened last Saturday when Venugopal was on duty with the interceptor vehicle on the flyover near Agalagurki on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway. He flagged down a car that was coming towards Bengaluru at a speed of 160 kmph.The person in the car told Venugopal that he was going to meet the ADGP, who was his friend. But the ASI clearly told him that he could do nothing about it and penalised him for over-speeding. The ADGP was informed about the incident by his friend himself, who spoke in a positive tone about the police official. 

ADGP Sandhu called him up directly and congratulated him, saying there was need of more policemen like him. He also wrote to Chikkaballapura SP Karthik Reddy on Monday, asking him to mention the good work in the ASI’s service record and also reward him suitably with cash prize.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Sandhu said, “Flagging down a speeding vehicle means he has averted a possible accident. He has to be appreciated for that first. And even after knowing that the over-speeding driver was my friend, he went ahead and penalised him. It shows his professionalism and thus I called him and appreciated his work.”

Venugopal, however, said he had not done anything great but performed his duty. “I was surprised when I got the call from a very senior officer. It is his greatness that he appreciated my work,” Venugopal said, disconnecting the call saying he was attending to an accident case.