Valley
A police vehicle escorting ex-prime minister Chand hits scooter and then flees
A video clip of a speeding Armed Police Force vehicle hitting a scooter surfaced on social media on Saturday, prompting the Twitterati to call for action against the driver and find which VIP the vehicle was tailing as part of a security arrangement.
Nayak Paudel
A video clip of a speeding Armed Police Force vehicle hitting a scooter surfaced on social media on Saturday, prompting the Twitterati to call for action against the driver and find which VIP the vehicle was tailing as part of a security arrangement.
In the clip, the vehicle, with registration number Baa 1 Jha 9527, is seen overtaking a bike from the left side before making a sharp right turn—just when it passed by a scooter and a car—and in doing so, hitting the two-wheeler.
The scooter lost its balance and both the driver and the pillion passenger fell. There was only a bike just behind them, which managed to stop just in the nick of time.
But the police vehicle continued driving, oblivious to what could have been a major accident.
According to officials at the Armed Police Force, the vehicle was escorting former prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand.
“We have asked the Armed Police Force to send the driver to us. We will take necessary action against the driver,” Superintendent of Police Jay Raj Sapkota, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, told the Post. “We are also trying to find out who the people were on the scooter.”
After the 24-second video surfaced, social media users expressed rage against the reckless driving of security personnel and authorities’ tendency to not care about the general public.
The video was uploaded on the Facebook account of Sanzip Lama Tamang, whose real name is Sanjeev Kumar Tamang.
The incident took place in New Baneshwor at around 5:45pm on Friday.
“After the traffic light turned green and my friend started the bike, I took my mobile out and started filming. I had a hunch something was wrong. And in 15 seconds or so, a speeding Armed Police Force vehicle appeared out of the blue and overtook us. It then took a sharp turn to left and overtook the scooter from left as its rear side hit the two-wheeler,” Tamang told the Post.
According to Tamang, he and his friend saw the scooter riders trying to get up and that they looked fine. “But the police vehicle did not stop to check if the two people on the scooter were injured,” said Tamang.
Responding to tweets, Metro Traffic said it would take action against the driver.
The driver of the vehicle has been identified as assistant head constable Santosh Ghimire.
“Ghimire said he did not realise that his vehicle had hit a scooter. Security personnel sitting on the vehicle said the same scooter crossed them later,” said Deputy Inspector General Suraj Kumar Shrestha, spokesperson for the Armed Police Force, told the Post. “Since the vehicle was escorting a VIP, they were bound to not stop; however, they should not have driven the vehicle recklessly. A committee has been formed to investigate the incident.”
Meanwhile, former prime minister Chand in a Facebook post said he had not been made aware of the accident until he was told by security personnel on Saturday.
“If the riders of the scooter have sustained any injuries, I would like to meet them. They can contact me personally,” reads Chand’s Facebook post.
The general public have time and again expressed their anger towards the treatment VIP and VVIP people get in road movement. On March 5, a frustrated group of people had forced their way en masse when the road was blocked for the movement of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari from Bhadrakali to Sheetal Niwas via Lainchaur.