And they say the police are to serve the people?

The other day, my car, a Maruti 800 was towed from the marketplace of Acharya Niketan parked outside the ICICI bank. Along With several other cars parked outside, there were some fruit and vegetable vendors with a few rickshaw pullers also on the same lane. Just after finishing my work in the bank which took not more than 15 minutes, we (my MOM and I) found our car to be nowhere. A gentleman buying fruits from the vendor asked me if the car that was parked there was mine? He told that it has been towed and I must immediately go to the nearby POLICE thane (pnc) to get it back. Soon a rickshaw puller who himself came to us, took us there. On finding my car parked just outside the thane , I requested the head constable to release my car as I had not parked it in a dangerous position or negligently. Also I informed him that there wasn't any – NO PARKING – sign which we omitted to see. On his advice, we went inside the thane, only to find very less working rate and inspite of no crowd at all people brushing and passing you by. We reached the room to talk to the traffic in charge, who was out for lunch (we thought) and had little likelihood to come back, it being a Saturday, as was told to us. We talked to some other official, made a request to him but of no use. Finally came back to the head constable, after taking an advice from my father over the phone (who is a lawyer at Tis Hazari and Delhi High Court), payed a challan of Rs.200 with a charge on me u/s 122 and 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1985. The constable seized my car's registration certificate and gave me a date of after 30 days at the shahdara court to get it released. Being a fresh lawyer myself, it was highly ironical to submit to something which I have not done. Along with us, there was another lady driver paying a fine of Rs. 800 to get her car released which was parked near to mine. It seemed that the police have made it business to disturb common man rather than serve them. With this article, I want to request the common people to park their vehicles safely and to the traffic in charge, to please put up at least a few banners of – NO PARKING- wherever they don't want us to park!

(East Delhi Plus(TOI):07.07.07)