Lawyer escapes CP road rage as cops, CCTVs remain blind observers

On Jun 26, 2015

A 49-year-old lawyer had a narrow escape in central Delhi’s Connaught Place after an SUV rammed into his car and tried running over him when he managed to get out of his car, all this with a PCR vehicle parked nearby as a silent spectator. The incident was reported on 19 June. Nearly a week after the crime was reported, the SUV remains untraced.

A practising lawyer at the Delhi high court, JK Bhola was hit by an SUV at the intersection near PVR Plaza in Connaught Place’s middle circle on Friday night. When he confronted the inebriated SUV driver, the latter tried to run over him in full public view. Bhola jumped on the SUV’s bonnet and held on to the SUV’s windshield wiper as the driver drove for almost 500 metres.

He fell off the SUV after it hit a speed breaker. A PCR vehicle parked nearby made no effort to help the 49-year-old lawyer or chase the SUV as it fled. The only assistance that officials in the PCR provided Bhola was in getting a CATS ambulance at the crime spot to take him to a hospital. Doctors at the hospital detected a fracture in his hand besides bruises on different parts of his body.

Ironically, CCTV cameras installed near the scene of crime were not functioning and the SUV still hasn’t been untraced.
“I showed the investigating officer at least four CCTV cameras installed at different locations between the place where the SUV driver attempted to run over me and the spot where I finally fell on the road from the SUV’s bonnet. I was shocked when the investigating officer told me that three of the CCTV cameras were not functioning while the fourth CCTV camera had no footage related to the crime,” Bhola told HT.

A resident of Surya Nagar in UP’s Ghaziabad, Bhola in his complaint alleged that he was returning home at 10:30pm on June 19 in his Toyota Innova.

“I was at an intersection near PVR Plaza when a speeding white SUV rammed into my car from the opposite direction. The impact of the hit was such that I could not even come out of the vehicle from driver’s side and had to use the front passenger’s door to get out of my car,” Bhola said.

He alleges that when he went to the errant driver, the man hurled abuses on him and tried to run over him. “In the process, I fell on the front bonnet of the SUV and the driver drove me up to intersection of radial road number three where he jerked me off the vehicle,” Bhola said. A case was registered at the CP police station.