While we were returning to our home in BabusaPalya after the last movie show from innovative theatre, Marthahalli, we were stopped by two police constables who were on duty after we crossed the Marathalli bridge on the outer ring road (later we learned that it is called Karthik Nagar checkpoint). One constable asked for the documents and I showed him the Driving license. After another constable took over and he was told by first constable that the DL has been verified and the RC book is to be verified. (This constable will be referred to as constable (X) in this letter hereafter.) We showed the RC book which was along with a bunch of other documents. The constable (X) was standing next to me, so he moved backward to see the license plate to verify the vehicle number against the vehicle number mentioned in the RC book. The constable (X) asked for the insurance document. To which I replied that he doesn’t need to see them, only the Traffic police is authorized to demand and verify the certificate. The constable (X) replied that he is Police and he can demand all documents. The constable (X) refused to return the bunch of documents even on repeated asking. On asking an explanation as to why the documents are not returned, the constable (X) refused to do so. We finally had to call the police control room. Since we didn’t know what is the exact area is called I tried to give some landmark. I wanted to give the name of the constable (X) for tracing the spot easily. So, we asked the name of the constable (X) but he refused to tell. He had a jacket on so we couldn’t see the name badge. I asked him for the identification, but the constable (X) refused to give. The person from the control room told us to give the mobile to the constable (X) but he didn’t talk to person from control room. While arguing the constable (X) showed his fist to my wife and brought his hand inches away from my wife’s face, as if he wanted to hit her. He also showed her the stick he was carrying. The constable (X) talked on the walkie-talkie and said that there are persons here who are trying to create disturbance. When again we had called police control room (we had called the control room around four times), the constable (X) agreed to take the phone but I couldn’t understand what he talked on the phone. We had already given the name, address and mobile number, so we told the constable (X) that we are not required at the spot, since we had already given him all our contact details, but he refused to let us go. First he held the handle of my two-wheeler so hard that my two-wheeler wouldn’t move further. After that he tried to grab the key of the vehicle. I took the key out but he tried to snatch the key from my hand with all his power. He pulled the key so hard that the keychain broke and part of the keychain was left in his hand. My wife saw the part of the keychain in the constable (X)’s hand and thought that he has taken keys from me. She asked the constable (X) to return the key but the constable refused. At this point my wife took walkie-talkie from his hand and told that he has to give the keys back or she will not return the walkie-talkie. In utter frustration she threw the walkie-talkie away. After that one police car arrived. One constable got down from the police car and told me very rudely to leave my bike and sit in the police car. When there is a man and woman together the police can not tell them to separate in this way. There were other constables who arrived in the car also shouted at us. There was another constable who got down from the car talked to us properly and said that we have to wait for another officer to arrive. We had already spent more than an hour when another car arrived. One person in the white shirt and police uniform got down and started asking the constable (X) what happened. The constable lied that we refused to show the documents. He didn’t mention that he tried to hit my wife, physically handled the vehicle, that he had struggled with me to snatch keys from my hand or that he had broken the keychain. After that the white shirt officer started taking my video where I have described everything happened till then. This video should be available in police records. Around this time I asked my wife where my mobile is in our mother tongue. I also said that the mobile was given to the constable to talk in my mother tongue. All this conversation happened in our mother tongue Gujarati. Later the inspector told us that the constables are saying that we accused the constable of stealing the mobile. I replied that we talked in mother tongue, and how is it that they understood that we accused him, when they didn’t even understand a word of what we spoke. The white shirt inspector told us that it is the constables’ duty to check the documents. I told him that DL and RC book were verified. I asked him if he is supposed to demand the insurance document, to which he did not reply. The white shirt inspector told us to come to the police station and leave the vehicle behind. At this point another senior inspector arrived and asked what is happening to the white shirt officer. I have to refer to the person as white shirt inspector because he didn’t tell his name or his designation. All the time not a single police person told us their name and designation while starting the talking. The white shirt inspector started with saying that we refused to show the documents. I tried to explain but I was cut short. When I got the chance I told him that the constable even moved to look at the license plate at which the white shirt officer told me that he has to do that to verify. So I told him that the constable did verify the documents. The senior inspector asked us to show the documents again and I gave all the documents and they verified that all documents were in order. He suggested we compromise and not press charges against each other. We were held for around two hours by now so we agreed. We went to the HAL police station. One constable who had talked with us properly told us we should write an apology letter mentioning some misunderstanding or miscommunication and the other constable will do the same. We were told that the letter written by the constable (X) will not be used against us in any event. We suggested that we write all the details and add in the letter at the end that we are not pressing charges. But we were advised that it will look like complaint against constable (X). We wrote a letter in English in which we omitted all the details and only mentioned misunderstanding. We submitted the letter in the police station. After that we saw the letter written by the constable (X) and asked what was written. He had narrated whole incident but added that he didn’t press the charges. This letter is the addition to the letter we submitted in the police station. This letter in no way contradicts the statement we gave earlier, it merely adds the details and maintains that we don’t want to press charges as verbally agreed. Only after submitting our letter we were told that the name of constable (X) is Head Constable Gangadhar.
The point I’m trying to make here is that, just because the officers are in uniform, does this give them any right to manhandle the public and others’ private property? Don’t we as tax payers, have any right to question our officers. Do we have to succumb to their brutality every time???
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