Car impounded by cops post an accident FIR: How do I get it released

The two wheeler guy was coming from the other side and was riding in the middle of the road so as to avail the tarred part.

BHPian arnav17 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hey guys,

An aunt of mine got into a mini accident on the 9th of October. with a Activa. The car in question driven by her is a first generation Ertiga. This took place near Talaghattapura near the forest area, close to the Sobha Apartments.

What happened was that, the roads there have tar only on the left side while coming towards Kanakapura road. My aunt was driving on the extreme left with lot of caution as it was raining Cats and Dogs. There was a bend in the road which is pretty sharp. The two wheeler guy was coming from the other side and was riding in the middle of the road so as to avail the tarred part. This resulted in a collision of the scooter with the right fender of the Ertiga.

My aunt immediately got down, helped him up and took him near their house which was near the accident spot. The man was pretty soft spoken at that time and he wasn't a kannada speaker, which made things slightly difficult.

My uncle immediately drove him to the hospital in a friends car, got an X-Ray done, assured that there was no damage, bought the two wheeler guy all the medicines required for treatment and also paid for the repair of his vehicle. All this amounted to est. 20000.

No news was heard of him until just a week back, when he called up and demanded that he wanted a new jacket as his was damaged in the accident. My uncle flatly refused to entertain this and the guy went to the extent of a police complaint threat which my uncle asked him to lodge if he wanted.

A few days later they got a call from the Police station who asked them to bring the vehicle in question(Ertiga) to the police station for inspection. The Ertiga being their only car obviously had been fully repaired by then as it had been over a month since the incident. The Police asked both to leave the vehicles at the station and they have been sitting there since.

The Ertiga is registered in Jayanagar, and they are having to make trips of 13km to get an RTO certificate, who are giving excuses and delaying it due to the biggest problem which is that no photos were taken by anyone on our side of the damaged vehicles.

Now, the two wheeler guy went to the Police 2 days back and wanted to withdraw the complaint all of a sudden. The police informed him that it was already registered as an FIR and nothing could be done then.

Please do advise on what can be done further to get the Vehicle back as soon as possible.

Thanks in Advance!

Here's what BHPian puntra800 had to say on the matter:

Almost similar thing happened to my dad way back in 1989, the guy got all treatment done and stuff post which he filed a complaint. My dad had to leave the vehicle in the police station, eventually it was fought out by the lawyers but he told me the bike got released from the police station before the case was closed(Not sure if it was some kind of influence which was at play or some adjustment).

From what I read in the above post looks like not much has changed since then, best thing is hire a lawyer through known sources(Why Known ?, sometimes lawyers also fleece and my father in law is a victim of the same).

Here's what BHPian true_sedan had to say on the matter:

• Hire a good lawyer.
• Visit the police station with all the medical bills and evidence along with the lawyer. Lawyers know how to handle the police and police respond properly when lawyers are present.
• Tell the other person(fraudster) to come to the police station as well.
• Do not tell him you are coming with a lawyer. Call him under the pretext of settlement.
• Confront him in front of the police with your lawyer doing all the talking. Show all the evidence of treatment given to him and things ending amicably.
• Police never like being lied to. And they can sense who the liar is when both parties are present. And once they find who the liar is 99% of the times they'll let the innocent party take the car and go after a few formalities. But if the station incharge is corrupt, then they'll extract 1 pound of flesh from you and 2 pounds from Activa guy for lying.

All the best! Don't give up. Your uncle and aunt are sweet people based on the lengths they went to get the guy treated. That Activa guy sounds like a fraudster looking to extract more money. And please install a DASHCAM. Can't stress this enough.

Here's what BHPian kochup had to say on the matter:

There is a way to release the vehicle pending trial, check this out

Also hire a lawyer and follow their advice which is mostly to admit to negligent driving and pay the fine since there are no major injuries.

Based on lawyer's advice, inform insurance about the FIR.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.