[Murugan]

Has anything like this happened before?

"Chennai police impound 10 sports cars for racing, drivers deny charge
Sindhu Kanan | TNN |
Updated: Feb 26, 2017, 09.10 PM IST

Impounded sports cars are seen near a toll on East Coast Road.

HIGHLIGHTS

Police officials claim high-end cars indulge in racing along the East Coast Road

They have detained ten high-end cars which include a Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari

Drivers of these cars deny charges, say driving even at regular speeds produces loud noise which is misunderstood for racing"

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...w/57361287.cms

[Engine_Roars]

Should not be tough to ascertain the speed of the cars, since from what I have read this road has all sorts of high end hotels/resorts, one of those should have CCTVs installed directed towards roads, this is, if and a BIG if, THE MONEY DOES NOT ROLL.

[GTO]

Love for your car + presence of mind. Even while their cars have been impounded, a handful of owners put the body cover over their rides .

Picture from the same link:

[Mtv]

Street racing is wrong and the police have done the right thing.

But why are those cars open to the public to molest like that? It pains me to see that one guy leaning on the side view mirror of the yellow 911 the most.

[shifu]

Originally Posted by GTO

Love for your car + presence of mind. Even while their cars have been impounded, a handful of owners put the body cover over their rides .

Not sure if it is about love for the car. It could be more of an attempt to hide the reg number from the clicks of the press. It is quite possible that many of these must be registered in PY on phony addresses. An unnecessary controversy can be avoided by covering up the number plates.

[Fullrevs]

Originally Posted by Murugan

Drivers of these cars deny charges, say driving even at regular speeds produces loud noise which is misunderstood for racing"

That is exactly what I feel too. ECR isn't a extremely wide road where these cars can go racing. Its quite bumpy even with the new tarmac that has been laid recently.

The public must have complained to the police and this is the result.

[arjab]

Even the bunch of lemons dangling from the Lambo could not shield the vehicle or its owner from the evil hand of Chennai cops!

But on a serious note: I have personally seen some of these vehicles being driven on ECR, (not this time, but on other weekends), and boy - oh - boy, do they do serious speeds. Really serious velocities.
End of the day that cannot be condoned. ECR is not a access controlled highway, neither does it have a high speed limit. Whatever car you own, you cannot drive it irresponsibly on public roads.

What surprises me is that the owner's of all these vehicles are obviously quite well placed in society. They can easily take the Sriperumbudur Race Track on hire, (in this case i think they were travelling on an invitation by a vehicle OEM to a resort on ECR), and drive to their heart's content in safety and security without such incidents taking place!

[centaur]

I am just wondering on one thing. The owners might be taking the cars only on roads where they know they won't brush the underside of the car because of the many reasons like speed breakers, potholes etc. but in this case they would be forced to take the cars to the police station. Wonder how they manager if the roads are not "low slung car friendly"

Originally Posted by GTO

Love for your car + presence of mind. Even while their cars have been impounded, a handful of owners put the body cover over their rides .

Are those a bunch of lemons on the Lambo bumper? The pic should be titled "This happens only in India" (pun intended)

[rubicon]

This is what is being reported in "The Hindu" newspaper in the last two days,

Feb 28 - When the police put the skids on swanky wheels.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...le17381151.ece

The Sunday morning crackdown on high-end cars on East Coast Road — when a handful of police personnel daringly stopped a fleet of 10 cars including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mercedes, Audis and Porsches — has turned the focus on a problem that residents of the ECR have long been complaining of: speed merchants who don’t give two hoots about the safety of other road users.

While nine of the cars were detained at the toll plaza, the driver of one car who took off was traced and brought back to be booked under various sections of the the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.

According to the police, the seized high-end cars that remain at the police station are worth nearly ₹60 crore in total. The price of each car ranges between ₹2 crore and ₹8 crore.

The Motor Vehicle Inspector was asked to inspect whether the cars have been modified against rules. Only after he issues a certificate will we release the vehicles, said the police.

The FIR registered against them said, “They were driving the vehicles dangerously, in a rash and negligent manner, endangering life and violating provisions relating to noise pollution.”

It is suspected from the vrooming sound that the cars made that the youth had made some alterations to the engines. This would have to be investigated, and if found true, other sections under the Motor Vehicles Act can be invoked, police sources added.

They said: “They were driving the vehicles in a formation from Akkarai. During morning hours, the road is always peaceful here. But these drivers caused high-decibel noises by stepping on the accelerator.

“We think that they might have tinkered with their vehicles to make it possible to race. Each vehicle created a sound as if a helicopter was flying on the road. We assume that the vehicles could have been driven between 150 and 180 kmph.”

T. Soundararajan, Traffic Inspector Neelangarai, recalled Sunday’s chase sequence: “Following instructions from our superiors, we mounted surveillance over the East Coast Road to crack down on racing by high-end cars and bikes between 4 a.m and 7.a.m. Early morning, we spotted high-end cars racing past Akkarai on East Coast Road and informed another team in Panaiyur. But that team was unable to stop them. Finally, it was traffic Sub-Inspector Mukesh Kumar who stopped those vehicles as they slowed down at the Uthandi Toll Plaza.” The men behind the wheel were in the age group of 20-23 and were driving towards Muttukadu. Their plan was to have breakfast at a star hotel close by and then participate in the launch function of a high-end car model.

An unusual scene played out at the toll plaza as the drivers questioned the police team for stopping their vehicles. Mr. Soundararajan said, “None of them had any papers with them — not even a photocopy of the driving licence or vehicle documents were with them.” Meanwhile, policemen said the drivers went live on Facebook justifying their racing and vilifying cops for taking action against them.

Then, the Traffic police personnel alerted the Law and Order police personnel attached to the Neelangarai station. Immediately, Assistant Commissioner, Neelangarai, S. Pandian rushed to the spot and ordered the vehicles to be taken to Kanathur station. In the melee, Ragav Krishnan, one of the drivers, sped away in his Lamborghini, running over the leg of an inspector Soundararajan. Mr. Pandian then instructed the constables to accompany each vehicle, and nine drivers with their cars were brought to the Kanathur station. Another police team was dispatched to bring the Lamborghini and its driver Raghav Krishnan from his residence to the station. The cars were detained on the premises of Metro Rail adjacent to the station.

The Kanathur Police booked cases against 10 persons — Vigneshwar, Siddharth Sankar, Vishal, Dr. Yeswanth, Vinayak Nilesh, Shankar Raman, Prassanna Babu, Karamchand Bothra, Keerthi Rajagopal and Ragav Krishnan — under sections 279, 336 and 353of the IPC read with provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. A separate case was booked against Ragav Krishnan for injuring the Inspector. All were released on bail on Sunday night.



Feb 28 - ECR ‘racing’: Cars inspected

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...le17386432.ece

Following a request from the police, P. Baskaran, Regional Transport Officer, Sholinganallur, accompanied by Kennedy, Senior Scientific Officer, Pollution Control Board, on Tuesday inspected the high-end cars that were seized on Sunday in Kanathur.

In the presence of the owners, the officials checked the vehicles for evidence of tampering with the engines. They also ascertained whether the cars had proper number plates and whether the sound levels were within the permissible limits.

The 10 luxury cars seized by the traffic police at the Uthandi toll plaza have not been handed over to the owners yet and remain parked at the Kanathur police station.

Following complaints by residents of frequent racing on the East Coast Road, the traffic police, in coordination with Neelankarai Range police, seized the high-end cars, including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mercedes, Audis and Porsches. The police charged the drivers of the vehicles with rash driving.

The Kanathur police booked criminal cases against 10 persons under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code read with provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. They were arrested on Sunday and released on bail immediately.

However, their vehicles worth around ₹60 crore were seized and parked in the compound adjacent to the police station and are being guarded by police personnel round the clock.

Police sources said the vehicles would be released to the owners once the officials issued clearances.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by rubicon

In the presence of the owners, the officials checked the vehicles for evidence of tampering with the engines. They also ascertained whether the cars had proper number plates and whether the sound levels were within the permissible limits.

I hope someone video graphed this mockery

Engine check for the Lambo by the officer:
Step1: Open bonnet and find engine.
Result: Fail. Cars should have engine in front. You have modified and moved the engine to the back. Rs.1000 fine.

That Lambo isn't passing any sound tests either

[Octane_Power]

I wonder how our officials check for any modifications in supercars. In normal road cars it is easy to spot the after market air-intake or any other 'shiny' stuff which looks odd. In this case I really doubt if our officials are even sure of what a 'stock' engine looks like in such cars.

Or will they do a Google image search 'stock engine of aventador' and comparing against the image!?

Does anyone know how it works?

-Bhargav

[vigsom]

These cars don't need modifications to make them growl or speed.

Why did the authorities even allow registration of these vehicles if they were indeed concerned about "racing"?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by vigsom

These cars don't need modifications to make them growl or speed.

Why did the authorities even allow registration of these vehicles if they were indeed concerned about "racing"?

Let us put it this way. I live not too far from the ECR and that is a road that sees regular racing over some of the longer and comparatively smooth stretches closer to Chennai (it gets much worse as you get closer to Pondicherry though that's changing).

Racing on the ECR is also a favorite of kids in heavily modded regular bikes (pulsars and such), dukes / gixxers, random ordinary guy who feels like Rossi when he redlines a falling to bits old Swift .. across the board. Not just superbikes and supercars.

It is also a favorite road for "auto enthusiast" clubs - we've had more than one tbhp drive from Chennai to Mahabalipuram for example, and there's local supercar owners, harley owners, vintage car rallyists etc who do chennai to mahabs / chennai to some ECR resort / chennai to pondy on a very regular basis. And the more powerful variety of car or bike tends to floor the accelerator on a regular basis.

I'd typically be doing a steady 100, catch a sight of a bunch of these characters rapidly approaching and give them more than enough space to pass - which they normally do fast enough to leave me far, far behind.

So there's every likelihood that these guys were way over the speed limit (and hell, the speed limit is certainly rather lower than 100 on the ECR so I'm perhaps not best suited to point fingers). And at least one of them was stupid enough to escape after running over a cop's foot, where a bunch of his friends still in police custody would surely know where he lives and certainly a cellphone call to the concerned police station will easily beat even a F1 car to the guy's home.

[rubicon]

I-T dept summons swanky car owners Mar 2, 2017

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/natio...amil-nadu.html

The income-tax department has summoned the owners of the swanky cars that were seized by the city police on Sunday for alleged speeding and rash driving on East Coast Road. According to I-T sources, all the owners of the high value cars were asked to be present at the Income-Tax Office on Monday for giving statements.

I-T officials indicated that that they would like to know the source of funds for the owners to buy such cars. “We don't know if the cars were owned by the drivers against whom the police had booked a number of cases. We would like to check the finance part regarding the purchase of the cars. They may belong to the drivers, firms or other family members. We hope they will have satisfactory explanations for our questions on money used to buy the cars when they appear before us on Monday,” a senior income-tax official said.

The police, after seizing the cars — 3 Lamborghinis, 2 Porsches, 2 Audis, a Ferrari, a Mercedes Benz and a BMW, which are valued at several crores of rupees - moved them to a shed in a facility of the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) located behind Kanathur Police Station off ECR, for safe-keeping.

The 10 drivers of these cars were booked for rash driving or riding on a public way, act endangering life or personal safety of others, driving dangerously, racing and speed trials, besides causing noise pollution.

One more section was added in the case of a Lamborghini's driver identified as Raghav Krishnan who drove his car over a police inspector's foot. He was charged under IPC section 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty).

[hserus]

Ha ha I was wondering when that was going to happen and why the tax guys hadn't stopped by yet. I am not sure which of the two are going to give them a bigger headache, police inspectors or tax inspectors.