The City police registering a case of rash and negligent driving against techie Omprakash, whose wife was killed after he bumped his bike into a pothole on Thursday, has drawn angry reactions from Bengalureans.
The people’s ire is also directed at civic bodies such as the BBMP and the BDA, which they feel are not discharging their duties. They want the civic authorities to own up responsibility for the accident, which killed software professional Stuthi Pandey (25) on the Devarabeesanahalli flyover near Marathahalli, instead of blaming others.
“What a joke? Do the BDA or the police have any witnesses, CCTV footage that say the person was driving rashly? Will anybody drive into a pothole on their own?” said user Victor_K in a comment on the report of the incident published on the Deccan Herald website.
Dr K B Vijayakumar lashed out at the police: “Arresting the husband showed the foolishness and stupidity of the police. What else can you expect from a department that is No. 1 on the corruption index? The genius who invented this cause for the case will be given a word-bashing by the courts. That will be our day. We can garland the ‘genius’ that day.”
Another netizen posted: “Even rash drivers don’t like to jump into potholes for fun. Hope the corporation will look into maintaining roads instead of doing resort politics.”
Sreesh R Babu, an advertising consultant living in Ramaiah Layout in Guttahalli, was livid. “The high court has been giving directions to the BBMP and the BDA to fill potholes and submit a report to it. But nothing has been done so far. The police themselves are shameless in registering a case against the husband, who must be going through major trauma. A case should instead be registered against the BBMP,” he told Deccan Herald.
He said there are umpteen number of potholes in his own locality. “There are no proper roads at all. I feel scared to even take out my scooter,” he said.
On micro-blogging website Twitter, Nabin Patro commented with the hashtags #Potholes and #Bangalore: “Authorities needs to be sued, if any incident occurs at unsigned #potholes (sic)”. He also tagged Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in his post.
Published 20 September 2015, 20:56 IST