Kolkata: Scooter Rider Beaten To Death By Civic Police Volunteers For Not Wearing Helmet

North 24 Paraganas district, located 24 km north of West Bengal’s capital city, Kolkata, witnessed on Saturday the thrashing of a scooter driver to death for not willing to bribe the civic police volunteers who caught him driving without a helmet.

Soumen Debnath, a business man by profession, was stopped, kicked and punched on refusing to bribe a group of civic police volunteers. Rescued and rushed by the crowd to the local hospital, Debnath succumbed to his fatal injuries.

Jessore Road remained blocked in protest against the thrashing.“There was a scuffle between Mr Debnath and some civic volunteers over violation of traffic rules. He was rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead,” Superintendent of Police, North 24 Paraganas, C. Sudhakar said, reported The Hindu.

Outraged by the brutality, the locals chased the volunteers away, with some finding refugee in nearby buildings hidden from the furious crowd. Soumen Roy, a civic police volunteer, was charged with murder and arrested by the district police under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A protestor, Bikram Mondal, claimed that though the government legalized a fine of Rs 100 for failing to wear a helmet, the money demanded by the civic volunteers is never less than Rs 500 for any violation, reported The New Indian Express,

The Logical Indian community is perturbed by the incident and the manner in which civic police volunteers handled a traffic rule violation. They are the ones responsible for upholding the law, instead resorted to violence that took an innocent’s life. Debnath should have been fined so that he remembers to wear a helmet from the next time for his safety. However, by asking for bribes and thrashing him to death, the volunteers belittled the true meaning of law and order.