Sood to cops: Don’t stop vehicles to check papers

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Amid growing complaints from the netizens regarding vehicles being arbitrarily stopped by traffic police to check documents, Karnataka police chief Praveen Sood has yet again reiterated the instructions to the Bengaluru traffic police to stop a vehicle only if there is a traffic violation.

“Time and again, all of us received complaints about indiscriminate checking of vehicles in the towns as well as highways. Most of the time, it is in the garb of document checking which goes on needlessly from DL to RC to fitness to pollution etc.

Most often than not, it is with ulterior motives,” Karnataka DG & IGP, Praveen Sood, said in his statement. The top cop said that for almost a decade the senior officials have been directing that no vehicle must be stopped merely for checking documents unless it has committed an offence visible to the naked eye. The only exception is being drunk and driving, he said.

“It is high time that unit officers take personal initiatives to stop this practice which puts law-abiding citizens in avoidable hardship,” he added in his statement.