Driver held for tirade at traffic cop on JM Road

PUNE: A 29-year-old man was arrested for allegedly abusing a traffic constable after being stopped from driving on the wrong side of the Jangli Maharaj Road on Wednesday evening.
This was the third instance of commuters abusing traffic police for being stopped from wrong-side driving in recent times.
Constable Kishore Shinde, attached to the Deccan traffic division, registered a complaint with the Deccan Gymkhana police station.
“When I stopped the driver, Rohan Thite, from taking the wrong side, he started abusing me. He told me that he is a corporator in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), following which I immediately alerted my seniors,” Shinde told TOI.
Sub-inspector (Deccan Gymkhana police) D M Borkar said Thite was under section 353 of the Indian Penal Code. He was produced before a local court on Thursday and released on bail.
On Wednesday evening, Shinde said, traffic along Jangli Maharaj Road was crawling because of the rain and the ensuing waterlogging in some parts of the road. “Around 7.30pm, I spotted a car coming towards Balgandharva auditorium. I intercepted the car and told the driver to reverse. Following which, the driver started abusing me,” he added.
Shinde said Thite told him that he was a corporator and would not listen to him. “I told him that I do not have any personal enmity with him. I asked him to reverse his car, as he was causing more trouble to the traffic that was already moving slowly,” he said.
The driver was, however, adamant on not reversing the car, prompting Shinde to get in touch with his seniors. “He was arrested and taken to the police station,” Shinde said.
In another case, the Sahakarnagar police arrested a 37-year-old man from Balajinagar in Dhankawdi for allegedly beating up a Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) technician for disconnecting power supply of his house for non-payment of bill.
Police said MSEDCL had recently snapped power supply at Pravin Dabhade’s house as his electricity bill was pending for quite some months.
“On Wednesday around 1pm, Dabhade and his relative went to the power utility’s office at Dhankawdi and started abusing technician Pramod Pawar. Dabhade also beat him up with hands,” a Sahakarnagar police officer said.