Open parking unsafe

The wanton destruction of private vehicles by unknown miscreants has resurfaced in Bangalore, the latest incident involving nine cars which were set on fire in two different parts of the City in the early hours of Friday. Baffled by the incidents, the police have begun investigations into a phenomenon which is not new to Bangalore.

In the past, too, several similar incidents of auto vandalism were reported to the police, but inquiries did not lead the police to the perpetrators.

What created shock waves among residents was the nature of the destruction: the miscreants poured petrol on the vehicles, including a car, parked in front of homes in Sunkadakatte near Solapur Devi Temple under Kamskshipalya police station around 2 am. One motorcycle was completely charred while the other vehicles were partially burnt.

In the other incident, which occurred in Vidyaranyapura police station limits, four vehicles were badly damaged after miscreants set them ablaze. Mithun, a software professional from Orissa, had parked his bike at his house portico after returning from work well past midnight. Barely an-hour-and-a-half later, an unidentified man hurled a piece of burning cloth on it.

Within moments the bike was burnt completely. Three other vehicles, parked close by, also caught fire, but were damaged partially, the police said.

“We have booked cases of vandalism and will not spare the miscreants who are recklessly damaging citizens’ property,” M R Pujar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), told Deccan Herald.

Cautioning people over parking vehicles in front of their houses, Pujar advised them to remain alert.

This is the fourth incident of vandalism since Oct 30, 2009, when miscreants had gone on the rampage in Sarabandepalya, Prakashnagar, Mahalakshmi Layout, Vijayanagar, Beereshwaranagar, Yeshwanthpur, Triveni Road, Shivaji Circle, Parks Road and Tasker Town.

On December 4 last year miscreants, brandishing swords, had run amok, smashing vehicles in Shivajinagar, Frazer Town and Bharathinagar and Commercial Street police station limits. 

The third incident occurred six days later when five drunk men created chaos in Prakashnagar by damaging around 20 vehicles.

Although the police are clueless about the latest acts of vandalism, the earlier incidents were believed to have been carried out to settle scores among business rivals. At that time, the police suspected that one of the reasons to indiscriminately torch vehicles was to create fear and panic among the residents by rival gangs out to establish their dominance in different parts of the City.