Harassed by SI after accident, claims retired IAF officer

Even as the argument was going on, the Sub-Inspector, identified as Gunasekharan attached to the Vepery police station, removed his white shirt to show his police uniform, held the retired official by his collar and dragged him to an auto in an attempt to take the elderly man to the police station. But the official resisted and managed to stay in the same place. 

“I just asked if he could not say sorry after his bike hit my car. He took offence to this and started abusing me. When I protested, he dragged me by holding my collar. I almost fell down in the melee,” Swaminathan (65), who retired as a junior warrant officer with the Indian Air Force, told DTNext . Gunasekharan even pushed down Swaminathan’s aged wife, who was pleading to the SI not to manhandle her husband. 

The retired official finally managed to get the help of his relative, who is an assistant commissioner of police, to pacify the ‘angry’ SI. Later, Vepery inspector Chidambara Murugeshan was asked to settle the issue between the retired IAF personnel and his sub-ordinate. 

“I respect the uniform and I did not know he was a policeman. I did not abuse him, but only asked him whether he can’t even say sorry after his bike hit my car. He was wearing a white shirt, which he later removed and abused me,” Swaminathan said. 

Meanwhile Gunasekharan accused the retired official of pushing him while he was on traffic regulation duty. 

“I asked him to pull his car to a side as there was a traffic pile up. He immediately started arguing and even pushed me aside. I was in uniform and what he did was an offence,” Gunasekharan claimed. 

The SI denied the charge that his bike hit the car and claimed that the official’s car was parked on the road in such a way that it affected movement of traffic. 

Onlookers at the spot were unhappy with the way the police official handled the aged couple. Senior officers, however, managed to pacify the public and settled the dispute. No case was registered.