Journalism of Courage
The city police on Thursday evening arrested a man driving a private car when he was trying to enter the airport with a beacon atop the car on but with no government official inside the vehicle. The driver has been identified as Dattatraya Pawar (27),a resident of Kedgaon in Ahmednagar. Senior police inspector Prakash Shah and his subordinates on duty during a nakabandi (vehicle checking) spotted the car with the amber beacon entering the gate of the airport around 8.30 pm. The cops stopped the car and found no government official inside.
The cops asked the driver why he had installed the beacon. Pawar told the policemen he had come to the airport to receive the deputy collector in charge of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in Ahmednagar. Pawar said that the official was coming from Delhi and he was supposed to drive him to Ahmednagar and thats why he had installed the beacon. Cops are yet to confirm details with the said official.
Police arrested Pawar under section 108,177 of the Motor Vehicles Act for installing the beacon at a sensitive spot without permission and authority.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV),Sanjay Jadhav,said,In view of the Delhi blast,we had stepped up security. Nakabandi was on at the airport when cops spotted the private car with the beacon on.
It is being probed if the vehicle was attached to the deputy collectors office or whether the driver had installed the beacon for some other reason. In any case,when a government officer is not present in the car,the driver cannot put on the beacon. Also,private vehicles cannot install beacon without permission, said Jadhav.
We have not yet spoken to the deputy collector whom Pawar says had come to receive. Investigations reveal the car was registered as a tourist vehicle in the name of Pawars brother, said a senior inspector.
