Police arrest 13 youths in wheelie crackdown

In a major crackdown, the police arrested 13 young men doing wheelies on the National Highway 7 in the northern outskirts of Bengaluru and seized their two-wheelers.

The Bengaluru north division traffic police had formed special teams to crack down on bike stunts on Independence Day. The youths, aged 18 to 21, were doing wheelies in Devanahalli on Ballari Road and Hegde Nagar Main Road, the police said.

The police identified the suspects as Jabir Shariff, Arshad Khan, Jayanth, Kiran, Naveen, Saheb and Mubarak, all from Devanahalli; and Mohsin Ahmed, Manoj, Syed Shahbaz, Abhishek, Chandrashekar and Mehboob, all from Hegde Nagar. While the youths were let off on bail, the police are checking whether they have driving licences.

A senior police officer said: "We have booked them for dangerous riding, endangering public safety. Each rider has to pay a court fine ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 depending on the offence."