Road rage, unprovoked, is clear & present in Mumbai

NOTE: For the protection of identity of my friend, all factors of identification have been obfuscated, but the incident is real and an FIR is lodged with one of the police stations in Mumbai.

Right on the heels of Gurgaon’s Seema Kataria case (Read Here), comes a case in in Aamchi Mumbai.  Shocking, more so because this has happened to someone I know well.

A friend of mine, a lady, let’s called her Jane, was driving alone in what could be considered an safe, quiet and innocuous neighborhood in Mumbai.

The particular stretch of road is narrow and just about allows two vehicles to carefully pass each other. A BEST bus halts at a designated stop and Jane stops her car waiting for the bus to pass. A biker, a man with another one on the pillion, in a hurry tries to overtake the bus but is faced with a stopped car of Jane. But unless the bus moves, neither Jane's car nor the bike can get beyond the point. That’s all there to the start of this scene. What happens next is unbelievable but has really transpired…

The biker starts abusing her for ‘blocking his way’. Jane double checks that her windows are rolled up and doors locked, and patiently waits for the bus to move hoping the enraged biker goes his way. The biker's barrage of verbal abuse goes on for about half a minute. But ruffled by Jane’s patient wait, this guy loses it all and pulls out his helmet (so far suspended to the bike's handlebar) and starts pounding it into the windshield of Jane’s car. Within a few seconds the windshield is cracked all over, but thankfully does not collapse down on her. The act of blatant unprovoked vandalism happens in the presence of at least 30 onlookers, several shopkeepers around and other drivers on bikes, cars and the BEST bus nearby. Jane keeps her cool, despite being paralyzed by fear, and thinks about the options she has. She decides that doing anything would enrage the biker, he having already done so much damage unprovoked and audaciously in the presence of the public. The BEST bus moves, biker finds his way out and rips away. Jane manages to note down the registration number of the bike.

Jane drives down to the the police station a few hundred meters away expecting that the information about the enraged biker would be followed up immediately. But, she is informed that they cannot do anything without an FIR and that FIR can be filed only in the main police station a few kilometers away. There is no further explanation provided to her. Soon after, Jane drives down to the Main Police Station and files her FIR, knowing very well that this would be only useful for insurance claim and nothing much else by way of justice.

But, the bigger question looming over this is whether the public can feel protected from audacious goons. Do such unaddressed cases of unprovoked vandalism only encourage such unscrupulous behavior? What’s happened here can happen to anyone anywhere and is a daily phenomenon. When it happens to us, we realise we have been living in our little cocoons made of cotton candy and we wake up to the reality of the grim state of affairs. Fearing uncontrolled dire consequences we remain silent about these issues.

After all not every case can be highlighted in the media and not everyone has access to the top level of police machinery, to ensure justice is meted out in time and in every case.