[EFF-EIGHT-BEE]

Originally Posted by praful

From a legal standpoint, is the video recorded from a dash cam admissible in our courts?

I read somewhere that in India, dashcam videos are cannot be admitted as evidence as per some law. Is this true ?

Being a lawyer let me make it clear, video evidence are admissible in court. What court see in any evidence(for a matter of fact) is the inheritant consistency and the rational probability value of the evidence. In audio/video evidence, the court is particularly concerned about the tampering of the evidence(since in present digital world its an easy job). The court has to be satisfied about the authenticity of the media. The value of evidence will not be reduced even if it is obtained by illegal means, admissibility is all what matters. The term evidence is itself not defined in the evidence act, it is all left upon the interpretation of the judge. If he is satisfied about the admissibility, it will be included as an evidence and courts have started to accept CCTV and like videos as an evidence. Value of the evidence (whether conclusive or supportive in nature) again depends upon facts of the each case. Having a dashcam is good thing, having an evidence of any kind in one's favour is always a good thing.

[Rahul_]

Kudos to you for going ahead with the complaint. I chose not to put a complaint in a similar scenario given that the number was a VIP number and fearing retaliation. Also, in my case there was no damage to the car.The so called "Educated guy" got down and tried to force his hand though the partially open window and tried to hit.

PS : I had a dashcam running and he cared little, even with his car (in the wrong direction) blocking the traffic on a one-way. But in many cases I feel it does help.

Please stay safe while driving. Terrible traffic conditions is just filling up anger, everyone is driving angry. All of need to calm down, but don't know how that would happen for all, I am starting with myself.

Off late, if you question people overlooking rules they come back with twice the force on you. In your case, you didn't have much chance, but I am learning to just ignore morons on road and move on now. What I am really concerned is, this wont help in the long term and people will take rules for granted. I really shiver to think where we are heading to.

[T-Bone]

Originally Posted by funkmeister

This post has been posted on FB by the Bangalore Police

Guess who informed the cops about the post in team-bhp

[su1978]

in words of great Dhirubhai Ambani-there are many mad dogs on the road. i cannot throw stones at them everytime. Hence i throw biscuits at them. Although, this is not entirely related to the instances we are talking about. But taking a cue from the first line, i just ignore them and move away from them. Let us picture this, if we are driving down the road and there are some mad dogs running towards us. we would just move away from them. It is not our duty to run after them on the road with a stone or a stick in our hand and hunt them down. There are ample corrupt policemen and netas on them. These are just leeches who are crawling everywhere. Just ignore.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by su1978

It is not our duty to run after them on the road with a stone or a stick in our hand and hunt them down. There are ample corrupt policemen and netas on them. These are just leeches who are crawling everywhere. Just ignore.

That is an extreme view and I do not agree with what you say And please do not use that analogy in this context!

I hope you've read the original post where the member explained the sequence of events that led to the situation. He did not chase them looking for trouble, for a fact it was the exact opposite with those guys trying to inflict damage though there wasn't even an accident, no injury and no damage to property, it was an Ego rush.

Yes, there are some situations where one could be unnecessarily getting into trouble, but this isn't one of them. Those guys chased the car down due to their ego and with the intent of creating trouble and I'm sure most people would agree that the situation was handled extremely well by the member and those ruffians got what they deserved in a very legal way.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by NPV

That is an extreme view and I do not agree with what you say And please do not use that analogy in this context!

I hope you've read the original post where the member explained the sequence of events that led to the situation. He did not chase them looking for trouble, for a fact it was the exact opposite with those guys trying to inflict damage though there wasn't even an accident, no injury and no damage to property, it was an Ego rush.

Yes, there are some situations where one could be unnecessarily getting into trouble, but this isn't one of them. Those guys chased the car down due to their ego and with the intent of creating trouble and I'm sure most people would agree that the situation was handled extremely well by the member and those ruffians got what they deserved in a very legal way.

Yes mate exactly. i also understand that he did not run after them. Rather, they came barking after him. I hope you must have encountered such a situation in real life on road when suddenly a dog comes and tries to attack you. Your instant reaction is to leave the dog and move to your destination. As i have even observed that there are many intelligent people on the forum who have preferred to move along. Yes, when they cross the limits, then our only option is the legal route. I have also done it. But when i am driving daily on my route to-fro office & home, i find regular habitual offenders. For example on the tollgate, i regularly find such cabbies and they are willing to pick up a fight at even the drop of hat. Their vehicles are already battered and they will brush-up your car and try to extract money from you.

While on road, assume everyone to be drunk and you yourself the saving grace. Please drive safe.

[sudhirnam]

Commendable handling of the case, Nitin. In such situations, many loose temper and shout back which escalates the situation. But you chose the right course of action . And glad that the cops were helpful.
Road is full of such rowdies (and egoists). The best way to avoid road rage is to ignore the idiots and keep driving to your destination.

[Mortis]

Just curious since it seems a common theme of rowdy bikers stopping in front of cars and what not.
Suppose when one of these fellows comes and stops suddenly and you do not, either because you cannot stop in time time or you know the guy is upto no good. You hit the bike either lightly/medium/hard and the guy gets injured slightly/severely/killed. You have a dashcam which is recording. Forget about our usual jobless crowd/mob justice whatever, you manage to diffuse the situation to a point where no one is trying to lynch you and you call up the cops. What happens next at the Police station and in the courts ? You have video evidence that the guy has come and stopped in front of your moving car basically.

[nitinbose]

Originally Posted by amiya.c

Thanks for sharing this Nitin. Actually there is a bunch of goons in Kaggadasapura. I request everyone to be very cautious when travelling through that area.

Quite True: Infact, the SV road and outer ring road are pretty dangerous after dark. Caution is advised.

Infact a friend of mine was attacked in broad daylight. However, being the kind of tough person he is, he managed to counter attack, trace them to their location and extort INR 50K from them!

[haria]

Originally Posted by tharian

I am sure, these are people who are looking to pick up a fight just for the heck of it and because they have something in their mind against private cars.

Originally Posted by nitinbose

The bike riders followed me and somewhere near the big bazaar building, they again stopped right in front of me and started shouting abuses at me. The pillion rider started kicking the car's bumper. The rider came near my side (driver side) and continued to throw abuses. He tried to open the car door, but couldn't succeed since it was locked.

This may NOT be an isolated case. These are cleverly stage-managed "fights" for stealing items from car.

Standard modus-operandi is
- create a situation which will create an argument
- Ask the driver to come out/or create situation which make the driver to down the window/open the door
- Get into argument with the driver, while his accomplice flicks items kept on seat/dashboard

This happened with couple of my friends (few weeks gap) in the ORR bangalore. Many have the habit of keeping their wallet/mobiles on the dashboard or in the passenger seat (mostly they will target cars with ONLY single person, typically the office goer in his daily commute)

They are so slick and the whole thing is done so smoothly that you won't even realize something is missing!

Some Things to keep in mind:

a) Never open the window/door. If at all you have to step out, remember to take the mobile/wallet kept in car and put in your pocket. Same with the car key. I have seen a case of road rage, where a biker snatched the car key and threw it in a drain. The poor fellow was stuck for hours till he got a spare key from his house!

b) try to keep your cool and try to take some photos (even if you don't take photos, the actual act will make them more wary)

c) in any case, if you have to get out, tell them we'll go the nearest police station - don't offer to settle for anything

[hrman]

Kudos to you Nitin. I can make out from your name and location that you are not a localite.

I am really glad that despite this, the police helped you. I have had instances of known people who were not localites and the police did not support them in their complaint when they could not speak the local language. I had lost all respect for the local police.
But your incident makes me glad that Bangalore police is changing for good.

[p06rakeshb]

Sorry to hear about the unpleasant incident but commend your attitude and approach. Good to know there is a recourse to hooliganism and lawlessness that we are subject to just because we have the tendency to "avoid further hassle".

[Hells Bells]

I had an incident on similar lines couple of years back in Murgeshpalaya. It was during monsoons and the road was slick with a fresh shower. While navigating a turn in the area, I noticed a bike with two guys on it coming towards the intersection. Seeing no intent on their side to slow down, I slowed down to a crawl and then stopped at cusp of the t-junction to allow them to proceed.
They did not time it correctly though and banged into my bumper even as they started skidding due to late breaking.
While my bumper had a slight misalignment, they had their front rim twisted, rear view mirror broken and the bike was on the ground. They then proceeded to make a scene by asking me to pay up. I refused and said it is your mistake as you chose not to slow down in spite of visible junction and traffic. They then said we will go to police. I immediately said Yes! I told them to sit in the back of my car, locked the doors and started driving towards Airport Road police station.
The duo was not anticipating me going to police station and hence started calling someone. While they spoke in Kannada which I do not understand well enough, I got enough to understand they were telling someone to come over and giving description of my car.
Since it was peak hour traffic on Wind Tunnel road and with many traffic policemen, I was not duly concerned. Then another guy appeared on a bike and they started gesticulating to him with an intent on can he stop me before we reach police station
I made sure neither I unlocked the doors nor I stopped before I reached the station. What transformation when I pulled them into the station and initiated the conversation with the inspector on duty! They immediately apologized and scooted off even before I could come back to my car.
The only unfortunate part of this incident was I reached my office 40 mins late!

[car-dent]

Actually, its not just their rowdy nature but a modus operandi for stealing valuables from cars.
They will provoke you to come out of your car. As soon as you unlock your car and your attention is diverted, their aide may come and steal any valuables like wallet, phone, laptop from the car. This has happened to my friend earlier. They put him into a petty argument and when he sat back in the car, his phone was missing from the centre console.
So in my opinion, never unlock the car in such cases.

[nitinbose]

Originally Posted by hrman

Kudos to you Nitin. I can make out from your name and location that you are not a localite.

I've been in Bangalore for the past 10 years and can manage Kannada pretty well.

Its true that one should keep composed during such instances, ensure all the doors are locked and never get out to pursue an argument. Try to take as many photos/video as you can for it can be used as an evidence.