Pathetic treatment of vehicles while towing: What does the law say?

The law states that the procedure is to announce the offence on the spot and wait for 15 minutes (or IIRC 30 mins).

BHPian TSI47 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today on the way to my office in Greater Noida I spotted this tractor-trolley loaded with two-wheelers in such a pathetic manner. Looks like a towing vehicle to me as the entire tractor was yellow.

• What happens if the vehicle gets scratched or damaged while towing like this?
• Will the government pay for the damages?
• Who trains these people for handling the vehicles? Moreover, wrong parking is a different scenario but once you tow it, it should be the towing agency's responsibility.

It hurts to see the poor handling of the vehicles by towing persons.

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

Bangalore Police also had this practice. They even gave Blue T-shirts to such thugs. IIRC eventually it could only be stopped because some lawyer filed a PIL stating that the towing vehicles in question were not authorised to carry vehicles in that fashion as that is not approved by RTO, and these thieves who kidnap vehicles were not allowed to ride on them in this manner. Also, all such modifications were against the RTO approval, and thus illegal.

Apart from that, elections are coming up next year and presently all politicians are in appeasement mode.

The law states that the procedure is to announce the offence on the spot and wait for 15 minutes (or IIRC 30 mins). If the owner turns up within that time period, they're only liable for the penalty for parking incorrectly. Only if not, then the vehicle was to be towed & then held liable for (whatever extortionate) towing charges too. However, in Bangalore, the cops were brazenly violating this & immediately picking up the vehicle & towing it away.

This continued despite people talking videos of the thieving behaviour. There was once a physical scuttle among cops and motorists over this theft. Cops arrested the motorists and warned citizens that any harm or hindrance to these blue t-shirt fellows would not be tolerated & they'd file an immediate FIR.

Here's what BHPian UD17 had to say on the matter:

People should unitedly raise a voice against these practices of traffic police.

They do not care about the priced possession of somebody, all they care about is picking as many cars/bikes as possible whether they are violating any rules or not. All the damages are on the owner's head.

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

It's literally physically painful to see the way some people treat the vehicles being towed. This is one fine example. Others include the rope being tied around parts of the bumper (air dam, etc), deforming it in the process. Or automatic cars being towed without the driven wheels being lifted off the ground while still in the park. The worst I saw was a BMW 5 Series being towed with the rear wheels on the ground! I shudder to imagine the state of the prop shaft and transmission. At least in my case, all the situations I witnessed included branded or at least official-looking tow trucks (and not traffic police), which points to an overall lack of understanding.

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