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https://youtu.be/KHsmMpzFj7k Quote:
Dr Abhishek Swarnkar, the 39-year-old scientist who died in Mohali after being assaulted over a parking row, was attacked after he warned the accused that he would file a complaint against him. Shouting 'Tu complain karega?', the accused Monty pushed the scientist to the ground and hit him. Dr Swarnkar, who had recently undergone a kidney transplant, collapsed on the spot and died.
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They regularly bothered us, don't park here, don't park there. He (Abhishek) returned from IISER (that night) and parked his bike. They asked him to remove it and there was an argument. My son came upstairs. And they shouted, 'We will blow up the bike'. I told them, 'It is in front of you, blow it up'.
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We did not know the system then, that people park right outside their homes. My son kept moving his bike from one spot to another as some or the other person asked him to. We felt harassed that no matter where the bike was parked, someone had a problem.
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Originally from Jharkhand's Dhanbad, Dr Swarnkar was a distinguished scientist whose work was featured in international journals. He had worked in the US, Switzerland, and Germany and recently returned to India and joined IISER as a project scientist. The scientist had recently undergone a kidney transplant and his sister had donated him one of her kidneys.
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An eyewitness said Dr Swarnkar had been parking his bike there for a long time. 'What happened in the past two days that there was an issue? Monty and his mother Jassi had an altercation with him and Monty pushed him'.
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Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They said the accused, Monty, is on the run and raids are being conducted to arrest him.
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Source
This is really tragic. Signs of very deep moral and otherwise decay in our society and collective conscience. But then, considering the short attention spans and other pressing urgencies that we are all beset with, beyond social media outrage, nothing really will change on the ground.
Parking issue is touchy for many people these days. Those with an inflated ego and with a full belief in the old adage "might is right" often take law into their own hands, indulging in, abetting or triggering criminal acts. My sympathies for the victim scientist.
Another 37 year old road rage not parking incident from Patiala that I am reminded of (27.12.1988) is when Navjot Singh Siddhu and his friend R.S.Sandhu on Gypsy were engaged in a road rage incident. They wanted the 65 year old victim Gurnam Singh on a Maruti 800 to give way which he didn't. Gurnam Singh was beaten up by Navjot Singh Sidhu, who later fled the crime scene. Gurnam Singh was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. In May 2022, the Supreme Court sentenced Sidhu to a one year rigorous imprisonment.
Road rage incidents and parking issue fights can be viewed under the same lens. 37 years hence, our total number of vehicles have multiplied by "n" times and so has the population. Spaces are at a premium. Hence, one has to be extremely careful while dealing with such morons, impulsively and unpremeditatedly created criminals and/or criminals with a crime record.
Met a friend over the weekend. Childhood friend, we grew up on the same street in Bangalore. A decade ago, he moved to Belgium on work and he's been there ever since. Since he grew up in Bangalore and has family here, he visits every year or 6 months. As soon as he gets back, he takes his old bike out for a ride.
One thing he mentioned this time was "Every time I get on the road in Bangalore, I'm angry." Quite true, the chaos and the rampant rule breaking, the number of people and cars on the road, the dust and pollution, all combine to keep us in a constant state of waiting to get angry. It's no surprise that we explode one day or the other.
And the honking! Bangkok and Hanoi have the same kind of traffic density, that I've seen. But no one honks as much as the average idiot behind you when the light turns green in Bangalore traffic!
We need to solve the population density issues in our cities. Parking space woes are also a result of population density and people buying vehicles when they don't have the space to park them at home. Or we need to have much, much better enforcement so people will be scared to break rules and exhibit road rage. Otherwise, this constant state of anger/tension is going to slowly kill us.
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