Srinagar businessman ‘assaulted’ at Traffic Police headquarters

SSP Traffic: He obstructed official, we got him arrested, filed FIR

Businessman: I have filed counter-FIR against SSP, other cops

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, April 26: A Srinagar-based young entrepreneur with stake in hospitality sector has complained to Police that he and his friend were “brutally assaulted” and left injured and got arrested by Traffic Police officials at the Traffic Police Headquarters after they objected to the “highhandedness” of seizing their vehicle without any reason.

Running a chain of restaurants, 27-year-old Adnan Mir of Nigeen has been released on a bond but filed a counter-complaint of assault against SSP Traffic Maqsood-uz-Zaman and other officials of his organisation who allegedly assaulted him and got him booked and arrested in a criminal case.

“My younger brother Hanan and his friend Imran Ayaz were driving in our Hyundai Accent, DL9HC 1207 from Karan Nagar to Lalchowk in the afternoon on Monday. They were stopped by a Traffic Police party at Jehangir Chowk and asked to produce Registration Certificate of the vehicle registered in New Delhi. They showed them the original RC but the cops claimed that it was duplicate. That was very much the original one and is our possession. Thereafter, they asked for Pollution and Insurance documents which my brother had not. The cops asked them to get down as the vehicle was required to be towed away to Traffic Control Room. My brother argued that they could slap a fine but the vehicle could be towed and seized only on a specific violation. They didn’t listen to him. Towed the vehicle to Traffic Police headquarters and showed it falsely that it had been seized for wrong parking”, Adnan complained to STATE TIMES.

“At the Traffic Police headquarters, my brother was asked to deposit Rs 1100 as towing charges and take back the vehicle. He called me on phone. As I reached their to provide them Rs 1100, I found Imran lying on the footpath and writhing in pain. Someone was offering him water. He had been ruthlessly beaten up with lathis and thrown outside as he had argued that Traffic Police were doing atrocities and highhandedness and extorting money from innocent citizens. I asked the officials under what law were they using lathis and manhandling the lawful citizens. One middle-aged official abused and roughed up me. Five or six other Policemen came rushing and abusing. They thrashed me mercilessly”, Adnan said while showing intense bruises on his arm.

According to Adnan, an officer by the name of Raheel came to his rescue and he separated the assaulting men in blue uniform. He told Adnan to take back his car. “I told him Sir it is not the matter of illegal seizure of the car now. It’s a matter of highhandedness and brutality. I told them I will go back only after meeting SSP Traffic. I found SSP already in a heated argument with some lawyers in his office. Some of them were virtually dragged out. I complained to the SSP that his subordinates had illegally seized my brother’s car and beaten him up alongwith his friend. I insisted there should be some accountability. He retorted: ‘Are you the Accountant General? Who are you to ask it?’ He did not listen to anything and directed his subordinates to call SHO Kothibagh and get arrested and booked in some criminal case. Later, when my father met him, SSP told him he had got me booked under a minor crime. He told him that he could have got me booked under PSA”, Adnan added.

He said that he was released on a bond in the evening and his friends carried him to Bone & Joint Hospital where doctors examined him and reported that he had been severely beaten up as his arm was terribly bruised. He said that today he went back to Kothibagh Police Station and filed a “counter-FIR” against SSP Traffic and his subordinates allegedly involved in beating up the two young men. “First they asked us to deposit Rs 1100 and take back the car. Later, they maintained that the car had been seized and it could be released only by a judge. We found, they had immediately deflated two tyres of the vehicle”.

SSP Traffic (City), Maqsood-uz-Zamaan contradicted all the allegations levelled by Adnan. He told STATE TIMES by telephone that the accused had “obstructed the official and prevented him from discharging his duty”. “Even if there was no violation, it constitutes a violation when a public servant is obstructed. He has pushed an official. It becomes 353 RPC. How could they tolerate it. We have seized his vehicle and filed FIR against him. Let law take its course. Let the investigation prove who is right and who is wrong”, Mr Zamaan asserted. He claimed that the Traffic personnel had not beaten up anybody.

END

[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]