Chennai cops stop & harass bikers for wearing protective riding gear

Chennai cops have been in the news quite frequently. The episode of them seizing high-end supercars in Chennai attracted the ire of enthusiasts. Now, a video new has surfaced, which shows a bunch of bikers wearing safety gear being stopped by the cops in Chennai and harassed . Here is what happened.

What happened here?

A few riders who were out on weekend ride were stopped by the cops. The riders waited at the red light at the traffic signal and started when the signal turned green. After covering a few hundred meters, the motorcycles were stopped by the cops at a regular looking checkpoint.

The cops immediately removed the keys from the bikes, which were returned after the rider protested against it. There is no law in India which gives a police right to take out the keys during regular check posts set up by the city cops. There was a Kawasaki Ninja 300, KTM Duke and KTM RC 390 in the group that was stopped by the cops.

The cops first accused the bikers of jumping the signal, which the bikers strongly protested against. Then the cops changed tactics. The cops start accusing the riders were racing against each other but the speedometer does not show a speed above 50 km/h in the video. The cops also concluded that since the riders of wearing protective riding gears, they must be ‘racing’.

After this, the cops also tried to foist another frivolous charge against the bikers by questioning them for keeping the headlight turned on during the day. The cops seem to be unaware that the Indian government has made it mandatory to put Automatic Head On (AHO) feature in all the two-wheelers in India for better visibility.

The riders were let go after an hour of arguing with the cops. To remind you, Chennai cops seized as many as ten supercars earlier this year alleging that the cars were overspeeding. They also said that such cars make very high noise and run at high speeds.

There have been many such incidents from India that report cops stopping the riders of high-performance motorcycles who ride wearing safety gears. It is high time that the cops either get advanced technologies such automatic speed detection cameras to catch such miscreants with proof, or change their mindsets so that the general public is not harassed.