Hyderabad, December 26: A police vehicle carrying a senior IPS officer on duty has been prevented from passing through the neutral lane at the toll gate near Toopran simply because the toll gate employees have refused to believe that he is a police officer.
Government officials on duty can pass through this lane without paying toll. Police sources told Express that inspector-general of police (west zone) Rajiv Ratan was proceeding to Medak district on a surprise visit this morning. He was heading to the CSI Church in the district, where over a lakh of people gathered for Christmas festivities, and the senior IPS officer wanted to see for himself the security arrangements in place there and whether his men were performing their duties well.
As the police vehicle reached the toll gate near Toopran and was passing through the neutral gate, one of the employees signalled the driver to stop. The driver rolled down the window and told the employee: “Peechhey, IG sahab hain” and was about to take the vehicle forward when the employee shouted at him to stop. “Get down and show your ID card,” the employee insisted. The driver and the gunman of Rajiv Ratan got down quickly and told the man at the gate again that they were policemen and asked him to clear the way.
Soon, three other employees manning the toll gate joined their colleague and all of them demanded that even the IPS officer show his identity card. Annoyed, Rajiv Ratan got down and enquired what the matter was. “I will show you my ID card but there is no need for you to intimidate us and behave rudely,” Ratan told them.
Since the officer was not in uniform the toll gate employees were unconvinced. Then Ratan went on: “I am a police officer on duty. How can you stop me? Can’t you see it is a police vehicle?”
All the pleadings and convincing by the police officer, his securitymen and driver fell on deaf ears, and the police vehicle was held up for about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, the local SI, along with his team, arrived on the scene and took the four toll gate employees to the nearby police station and warned for rude and intimidating behaviour with a senior police officer on duty. When they apologised, they were let off.
When contacted by Express, Rajiv Ratan said that the employees behaved like ‘goondas’ and there was no need for them to behave in an intimidating manner. “I have no problem showing the ID card but their rude behaviour was uncalled for,” he said. He said it was a police vehicle, the gunman was there and they had identified themselves adequately.
Sources in the district police said the four employees told them that they did not believe in Ratan as many persons, claiming to be policemen, tried to pass through the neutral gate to avoid paying the road toll of Rs 85.
–Agencies