Today while driving from Saket to Khanpur on Mehrauli Badarpur Road at about 2.30 pm.
Lalita Raghav, HR26AC 2121 in a white SX4 stopped by a team of Delhi Police.
When the car was stopped by a team of police men suddenly, I asked for a reason for being stopped and repeated myself 4-5 times. There was no reply from any member of the squad. Instead, they shouted, abused and kept insisting that the car be parked on the side. There were loud voices and it seemed like a gherao. As a lady the treatment of loud voices, abuses, snatching of car keys and gherao by 10 Police men (Hawaldars) without any explanation had started making me feel harassed already.
There were 2 senior officers and 7-8 hawaldars. While the officers continued to remain on the side and watch the scene, the hawaldars tried to get physical with me first by banging the bonnet various times, snatching my car keys and then by banging on the windscreen of the car. It was after much raised voices from my end that the senior official came and informed me of the actual reason - speeding.
Thereafter, to my utter disgust a hawaldar caught a passerby on a bicycle, slapped him hard 2-3 times, and snatched his bicycle only to be kept as a road block in front of my car to ensure that the car is not moved. It seemed like I was dealing with local Goondas and not Police Men.
I was scared by now and admitted to my offence of driving at the speed of 70 KMPH while the permissible limit for the road is 60 KMPH and they said that the challan amount would be Rs.400/-. However, the challan amount was increased minutes later to Rs.1000/- probably because I argued with them against their rough handling of a lady or probably because a lady behind the wheel. They counseled me that being a lady it did not look nice on my part to argue with them and that I should have kept quiet. Is this the definition of what being a lady means – being timid and quiet so that she can get cheated and roughed up? Does being in uniform gives Police the right to rough up people as per their whims n fancies. To my utter surprise the senior officials did not bother to intervene and take interest in the matter and kept sitting on the side to watch the scene.
The Police officials did not budge despite my protests and collected Rs.1000/- fine from me. Feeling humiliated, cheated and mistreated I have reported the matter to 100 Police help line against Sub-inspector Khan, ASI Ram Pal Yadav, who were the seniors present at the site (since they did not take any action) and specially against Hawaldar Surinder who led the team in misbehavior along with a team of 6-7 other hawaldars.
Delhi Traffic Police website says - Overspeeding challan (1st time) costs Rs.400/- and 2nd time costs Rs.300/-. Considering this I have been grossly overcharged and cheated...
Is there anyone out there who is looking into this corruption? I demand not only return of my money but also claim for being paid for this harrassment.
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