Bengaluru is known for its incredible weather and scenic beauty, but the idea of exploring the city on the road can quickly turn into an unpleasant experience due to its traffic woes and increasing road rage incidents. Recently, an X user shared his horrific experience on a Bengaluru road where he was subjected to “staged harassment” while driving on the city's outskirts around 10.25 pm on Monday.
A man named Piyush Kukkar shared two dashcam videos showing how his car was stopped on Varthur Road, near Prestige Lakeside Habitat, by another car and was subjected to verbal abuse by another driver.
Advocating for the use of dashcams in vehicles, Kakkar wrote, "When someone tells you Dashcam isn't a necessity in BLR show them this, Another such incident in Bangalore outskirts, this time it happened with me. Today around 10:25 PM on the outskirts of BLR, I faced a staged harassment incident on Varthur road, near prestige lakeside habitat."
In the first clip, Kakkar can be seen driving on a busy street. The time stamp on the video shows it was 10:24 pm when a person on a scooter abruptly blocked his route. Kakkar said this has become a regular tactic to exacerbate the situation.
In the second clip, a Bolero, with the final two digits on its license plate scratched, started honking behind the user's car. Soon the Bolero overtakes Kakkar's car and its driver orders him to stop. Kakkar said the driver of the Bolero car eventually came out and started yelling at him.
In his long thread on the microblogging site, Kakkar wrote, "They forced me to stop, and the Bolero driver got out and began shouting aggressively. Another person on a scooty took a U-turn and came very close to my car. I suspect Bolero guy indicated to him regarding a dashcam being installed, hence he didn't hit my car with his scooty."
Kukkar believes the miscreants backed off since they saw his dashcam recording the incident. He said, “This kind of harassment is becoming very common in this area. My family, including my 3-month-old son, was in the car, and this could have escalated dangerously. I have attached the dashcam footage here.”
"As you can see in the video, I didn't provoke them, as I have been seeing these harassment incidents on Twitter very regularly, plus I had the dashcam installed. I consider myself very lucky today, but someone may not be that fortunate. Please install a Dashcam," he wrote further.
Kukkar then lamented about not purchasing a rear dashcam and recommended buying both front and rear ones.
His post has sparked a wave of concern among social media users with a user writing, "This is awful. What a horrifying time for those in the car.”
Another user said, “Very well handled !! Glad to see that they backed off.”
The official account of Bengaluru police also responded to the post and said, "Noted, we have informed to @varthurps for necessary action in this regard. @dcpwhitefield. Please provide your contact details via DM."