BENGALURU: A war broke out on twitter on Saturday after a science writer lashed out at the Bangalore City Traffic Police for lifting her sister’s vehicle that was not locked and allegedly parked outside her residence. Sandhya Ramesh, who has a verified twitter account took to the social media platform and said that it appeared to be “Police’s new trick to steal vehicles from apartment parking lots and then charge a fee to get it back.”
Through her twitter handle @sandygrains said that at about 3.30 pm on October 2, a policeman took her sister’s scooter from the apartment’s parking lot where they reside. “This morning at the Frazer Town depot where the vehicle was, we were told that someone had tried to steal it and the Police helped prevent that and brought it back from Ulsoor Lake to the Station. So we had to pay a ‘negligence fee’ cash only, no receipt, recorded as police case + hearing,” she recollected.
She added that the officer sought that a man come to handle the case and why only two girls were roaming around to get the vehicle back. She claimed that she was also told that the police charged her a minimal fee as she was a ‘girl’ and the same would be double or trippe for men and much higher if the supervisor was angry.
“He made us to sit in the station for no reason at all, in front of him, constantly bulliying and telling us we were being negligent and (had’nt locked the handle bars which is perfectly regular cuz (sic) guards move our vehicles around),” she wrote. Through their stay at the station, Ramesh said that she was asked personal questions about her family.
“I came back home and saw that the security camera has actually caught the cop in action. He snug near the apartment, made sure to look in and confirm the guards were not looking and then he took the vehicle,” she said. She also sought to know if anyone had similar experience and what was the right way to go about it.
Reacting to this, the Bangalore City Police said it was an unlocked abandoned vehicle taken into custody to prevent theft. After police verification, vehicle was released. Meanwhile, a senior officer, Traffic East said that Ramesh has misunderstood the incident. “We usually do this to ensure that the vehicle is not stolen.”