THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cracking the whip on bike stunters, Kazhakoottam police booked around 10 performance bike owners who engaged in rash and negligent driving. They were symbolically protesting the denial of permission for a racing event here on Sunday. In what turned out to be a messy situation, around 500 bikers turned up for a racing event inside a convention centre here, police said. The event named ‘Orange day’ was organised by a European performance bike company to promote the sales ahead of year-ending.
A bike which fell down during the stunt on main road
“Organisers had not taken the requisite permission from the commissioner of police. Also, there were no adequate safety precautions on the race track. The track itself was not safe. So we denied permission to avoid causalities,” said Kazhakoottam Inspector of Police S. Ajai Kumar. The event was scheduled to be conducted at 4pm and the bikers became agitated after it was abruptly called off.
They did ‘wheelie’ and ‘stoppie’ acrobatics in front of a large posse of policemen from Kazhakoottam and Thumba stations. Some of them fell down while doing stunts.
The bikers dispersed by police regrouping at Kazhakoottam on Sunday.
In the end, police booked some of them for rash and negligent driving. Several groups reorganised at various areas across Kazhakoottam before being dispersed by patrol teams. “They were young men and we will not openly call them a nuisance. However, when the gathering is huge, it comes with chaos that should have been avoided,” the officer said.
