Authorities in Bengaluru have decided to start returning the vehicles that were seized for violating the lockdown. The second phase of the pan-India lockdown will end on May 3 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the process to return the vehicles will begin from May 1.
Taking to Twitter, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said that the police department is finalizing details on how the vehicles will be returned. He said that the decision has been vetted by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
It’s decided to return the Corona seized vehicles from 1/5/20 onwards. Those seized first will be returned first.The documents will be verified and vehicle returned. This has approval of Hon CM and HM. We are doing the paperwork to ease the process.
— Bhaskar Rao IPS (@deepolice12) April 30, 2020
The process of return of vehicles to the rightful owners will start from Friday, the city police chief said. He further said the police department is working to ready the paperwork for the same. The vehicles will be returned only when the owners can produce original documents.
He added that the vehicles will be returned in the order they were seized, so the cars and bikes that were seized at an earlier date will be returned before.
A DCP in Bengaluru told TNM, "The vehicles will be released by jurisdictional police officers subject to a fine of Rs 1000 for cars and Rs 500 for two and three-wheelers. In addition, a bond will be executed as required under law The violators have to sign a bond stating they will not violate lockdown orders again."
The development comes after a plea was filed in court seeking the gradual release of vehicles upon the furnishing of a bond so as to prevent crowding when lockdown ends.
Earlier, it was reported that the violators whose vehicles were seized would be returned only following a court order. This was to be done as the vehicle owners would be booked by the police under the Disaster Management Act (2005) and Section 188 (disobeying prohibitory orders) of the Indian Penal Code as suggested by the union government.
To one Twitter user suggesting the release of 50-75 vehicles at one go to prevent crowding, Bhaskar Rao acknowledged the idea and said it will be planned later in the day.
Till April 2, the city police had seized around 7,000 vehicles from persons who did not have valid curfew passes issued by the jurisdictional DCPs (Deputy Commissioner of Police). These included cars, bikes and even autorickshaws. The number of seized vehicles is currently reported to be around 35,000.