Locals seize truck dumping chemicals into Vrishabhavathi

Unhappy over police inaction, residents caught a truck red-handed as it tried to dump chemical into the Vrishabhavathi river and alerted the police.

But negligence of the police has allowed the truck driver to drive away the offending vehicle on Saturday night, despite the residents having the key of the seized vehicle.

Upon noticing the truck trying to dump the chemicals into the river, residents of Brindavan Layout called up the control room. But the night beat police arrived more than an hour later and asked the residents to file a complaint at the station. When the residents were away with the keys, the truck simply vanished. They eventually handed over the truck’s ignition key to the police.

A resident said they alerted the police about seeing the truck at 9.15 pm, but patrolmen arrived only at 10.45 pm after repeated calls. They then suggested that the residents should file a complaint at the police station. "When we returned after filing the complaint and handing over the truck’s keys, the vehicle was missing from the area," the resident said. "We suspect a nexus between the authorities and the chemical factory on disposing chemical waste into the Vrishabhavathi river."

Several representations were made to the authorities, but no action was taken. So, residents decided to keep a watch regularly, he said. Residents blamed police inaction and the long response time for the driver fleeing later.

Kengeri police said they had received information about the accused and promised necessary action. Efforts are also on to catch the truck driver.