Man riding without helmet gets AAP’s support

Sunday evening saw high drama after the Samta Nagar police detained a 21-year-old youth for riding a motorcycle sans helmet and not carrying his driving license.

The youth, Mrunal Mathuriya, later claimed that the police alleged that he had consumed liquor as well and threatened to charge him with drunk driving while no medical test was conducted. Mr Mathuriya told The Asian Age that he asked for his medical report since the police claimed he had consumed alcohol but none was shown to him. After the incident, several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers gathered at Samta Nagar police station of Kandivali east as a mark of protest. Meanwhile, a senior official from Samta Nagar police station said Mr Mathuriya was penalised for helmet-less driving and not carrying a license and other vehicle-related documents, and not drunk driving.

According to Govind Rawat, AAP worker and friend of Mr Mathuriya, the youth, a resident of Thakur village, on Sunday evening was riding his motorcycle in the area when officials of Samta Nagar police station intercepted him. When he failed to produce any document, they took him to the police station and made him sit in an isolated place for nearly two hours. “AAP volunteers demanded a copy of Mr Mathuriya’s medical report from the police but they refused to give any such (copy),” said Mr Rawat. Around 25 to 30 AAP workers gathered at the police station to protest the incident, he said.

On his part, Mr Mathuriya told this newspaper that when the police stopped him, he was ready to pay the penalty but they took his bike keys after which, he told them that while they could slap a fine on him, they had no right to take away his bike keys. To this, one of the police officials slapped him and took him to the police station, Mr Mathuriya claimed. “They believed I had consumed alcohol and wanted to conduct a medical test on me, for which, they took me to a hospital but no test was carried out. Later, they said that I had consumed liquor as well, so I asked for the medical report but they showed me nothing. Thereafter, they admitted it was a mistake on their part. So, I asked if I could register a complaint of slapping false charges of drunk driving but no one registered my complaint,” said Mr Mathuriya.