Another incident of car vandalism by auto rickshaw drivers in Bangalore

They hit our vehicle from the right side and also threw a beer bottle at us. Two incidents have happened in one month! We want the lawmakers to take this seriously.

Thanks to the Team-BHP fan (she prefers to remain anonymous) who sent these videos and images in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing them with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page.

This is regarding the article you posted on 6th March 2024 which was then also covered by some news channels. The same incident happened with us and the police have been of no help. Please find below the exact recount of what went down with us.

The incident took place between 12.30 and 1.30 am on the 23rd of March 2024 morning. My friend and I took a DriveU on our way home from the Social JP Nagar launch. We were on our way home to HSR and the driver overtook an Auto or might have cut him off by mistake, don't clearly remember. But we can 100% ensure that we didn't touch the auto nor did we pick any fight with them or show aggression. But from near Vega City Mall, Outer Ring Road signal, crossing Silk Board, over the HSR flyover, till 27th Main crossing, they chased us.

Our driver, extremely scared, tried to outrun them, but they cornered us at the HSR 27th Main junction and hit our car from the right side to block us. They threw a beer bottle at us, which hit the rear left passenger side.

3 guys came out of the Auto to confront us. One guy picked up the stone to probably break the co-driver's side window but hit the chassis frame. Our driver had the sense to back up and immediately take a right to the HSR police station.

We lodged an NCR (Non-Cognizable Report) with the HSR police station at 2 AM. There are 3 CCTV cameras at the junction, which, according to the police, were non-functional when we went back to follow up on the process. They didn't take us seriously and were extremely lackadaisical in their approach.

We couldn't record the auto-rickshaw number plates because:

• They were chasing us
• There wasn't too much light
• We just wanted to escape the situation

It's not about the damage to the car. But it's about the fact that there was an intent to harm us. There was clear obsessive aggression from them to chase us all the way from BTM Layout.

Two incidents have happened in one month! We want the lawmakers to take this seriously because tomorrow someone might genuinely get grievously injured or worse. Sadly, we didn't have a dash cam so we couldn't record anything.

On our own, we are trying to find private cameras on our route which might help us in tracking these guys and also going to file an RTI as to what cameras were there on the road during this incident and how can the HSR Police Station tell us the following:

• The camera feed was not working (even though there are 3 cameras there) and
• Go to Bellandur police station as this doesn't come under our jurisdiction

We feel so helpless with our system and police when they don't take us seriously despite showing them your above article stating that this incident has happened before.

We are now scared to use any auto because you never know which one of them may turn out to be one of these thugs.

Here's what BHPian Thinking_Slow had to say about the matter:

Can you tweet this whole incident and tag Bangalore police? Please share the tweet link here so that other members can retweet it. Let's make some noise about it and force the police to look for the goons. This kind of thing is unacceptable.

Here's what BHPian raptor_diwan had to say about the matter:

Wondering why the police did not bother to take any action, maybe because both vehicles were yellow board and it has become very normal or they consider it just another day in a Bangalorean's life.

These days, it seems the police only spring into action if the noise you make is loud enough like if you've got video evidence that goes viral on social media. Otherwise, they don't even bat an eye.

Here's what BHPian RT13 had to say about the matter:

DriveU is an app where you can book a driver to drive your personal vehicle so no question of a yellow board here.

Gotta give some credit to the driver too for keeping cool and having the presence of mind to drive to the police station. Been a fan of the app and its drivers for a while now and this just reinforces it.

I wonder if these cams are part of the dormant AI camera system which is yet to be commissioned. I could be wrong though.

Definitely need to install those dashcams which I’ve been putting off for a while. This city is getting less safe by the day sadly.

Here's what BHPian HIGHWAY_PATROL had to say about the matter:

It is really sad that these kinds of incidents are on the rise.

I guess police officers may have brushed the case aside due to the lack of clear evidence against the assailants.

The least the authorities could do is to ensure those non-functional CCTV cameras are fixed soon. Hopefully, you will be successful in the efforts to get some evidence from private cameras along the route.

Day by day, we are getting closer to a situation where every road needs working CCTV cameras to maintain law and order.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.