While the traffic police are encouraging the public to take pictures of traffic offenders and post them on their website as part of their ‘Public Eye’ initiative, a 32-year-old woman software engineer, who tried to do just that, was allegedly assaulted publicly.
But MICO Layout police are yet to take action against the alleged attacker, while the traffic police have promised to act on her complaint against encroachment of a footpath by a car showroom.
The complainant, Shanthala Patil, works in an IT company on Bannerghatta Road. She said she was returning home from work and walking towards Sagar Apollo hospital junction on April 30 when she noticed that the footpath has been encroached upon by the car showroom, forcing pedestrians to walk on the busy road.
When she questioned the showroom staff, they promised to remove the cars. Ms. Patil waited for some time to see if they would remove the cars, but they did not.
Ms. Patil, who was aware of the ‘Public Eye’ initiative, began taking photographs of the encroachment.
Seeing this, one of the showroom’s employees confronted her. The argument between the two took an ugly turn with the employee allegedly trying to snatch the complainant’s mobile phone. He slapped and kicked her when she resisted, the complainant has alleged.
Ms. Patil called her husband and later the police. Some policemen arrived and tried to persuade the two parties to settle the issue amicably, instead of filing a complaint.
Ms. Patil insisted on registering a case of assault against the showroom’s staff and demanded an investigation. Eventually, a complaint was registered with the MICO Layout police.
Personnel at the police station described the incident as a trivial one and said that action would be taken after Sunday as they had to make security arrangements for the IPL cricket match at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Additional Commissioner of Police B. Dayanand said that he was aware of the incident and would instruct the jurisdictional traffic police to clear the footpath of encroachment at the earliest.
