MANGALURU: The city traffic police on Saturday booked an under-aged boy from Kerala when he tried to escape from police. In the melee, he even injured a police personnel.
The 17-year-old boy, a class-12 student, was speeding in the Kerala-registered SUV from Panambur to Karnataka Polytechnic College (KPT) with his girlfriend, when the city police tried to stop him as the car had tinted glasses. The boy, however, did not stop and tried to escape.
Police personnel at five junctions were involved in the chase for about two hours as the boy jumped all signals between five major junctions.
The driver sped on to KPT, and then to Nantur junction where the traffic cops failed to stop him. He drove to PVS circle, then to Karavali circle, Ambedkar circle (Jyoti), and Bunts hostel where the police tried to stop him using a barricade, said police sources.
He then took a diversion and reached near the Kadri police station, where he brushed past policeman Gajendra who was injured in the hand while trying to stop the car at the circuit house circle. The boy, who then went towards Kadri station and tried to escape through a narrow lane nearby, was caught near the police station.
As per police sources, the boy did not stop because he did not have a driving licence and the glasses of the vehicle were tinted.
The car, they said belonged to his friend, and the boy, who was completely broke, had borrowed it to take his young friend around.
As per sources, he was ferrying his girlfriend in his friend’s car. “He was taking her on a jolly ride and to the mall here,” said the source.
The parents of the boy, coolie workers from Kasargod, were summoned to the station. Police handed over the young couple to them. The boy was booked under IPC sections 279 (for rash driving), 337 for (causing hurt), 134 (A) (abetment of assault) and (B) and the car was seized.