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Journalism of Courage
An X user has shared dashcam videos showing what he says were two incidents of “staged harassment” that he encountered while driving on Bengaluru’s outskirts around 10.25 pm on Monday.
“When someone tells you Dashcam isn’t a necessity in BLR show them this, Another such incident in Bangalore outskirts, this time it happened with me. Today around 10:25 PM on the outskirts of BLR, I faced a staged harassment incident on Varthur road, near prestige lakeside habitat,” read the caption of the videos posted by Piyush Kukkar.
In the first clip, captured at 10:24:50, Kukkar is driving on a busy street when a person on a scooter suddenly blocks his path, in what the X user says is a common trick used to create obstructions and escalate the situation.
In the second video, a Bolero with the last two digits of its number plate scratched, begins honking behind him. In the next few posts, he said the Bolero’s driver forced him to stop and that the driver later got out and shouted at him.
The second video also showed a two-wheeler rider make a U-turn and approach Kukkar’s car very closely but avoid a collision, apparently after being alerted by the Bolero driver to the dashcam.
Watch the videos below:
Kukkar believes the miscreants backed off only because they had seen his dashcam recording the incidents. He wrote, “This kind of harassment is becoming very common in this area. My family, including my 3-month-old son, was in the car, and this could have escalated dangerously. I have attached the dashcam footage here.”
“As you can see in the video, I didn’t provoke them, as I have been seeing these harassment incidents on twitter very regularly, plus I had the dashcam installed. I consider myself very lucky today, but someone may not be that fortunate. Please install a Dashcam.” he added.
Kukkar, who regrets not purchasing a rear dashcam, recommends buying both front and rear ones.
The videos have sparked a wave of concern among social media users. An X user said, “Very well handled !! Glad to see that they backed off.” A second user wrote, “This is awful. What a horrifying time for those in the car.”
And a third user wrote, “this looks like a team work..all over bangalore after 8pm they get activated..trick n extract money. Looks like locals but unfortunately cops don’t run campaign to find such criminals.” Yet another user commented, “Why these are increasing day by day and why it is mostly in these areas. Reactive action won’t help to build a better city.”
Kukkar also tagged police in his post. “Please take necessary action to prevent such incidents and ensure the safety of citizens on these roads. #BangaloreSafety #RoadSafety @BlrCityPolice @blrcitytraffic @CPBlr,” he wrote.
The Bengaluru City Police replied, “Noted, we have informed to @varthurps for necessary action in this regard. @dcpwhitefield. Please provide your contact details via DM.”
