Bengaluru, Jul 21 (IANS): Bengaluru police have seized a software engineer's 1,000 cc superbike after a video of him riding at nearly 300 km per hour (kmph) on a city flyover went viral on social media, said an official on Tuesday.
"Going at a dangerous speed of almost 300 kmph at Electronic city flyover, putting his own and others life at risk...," said Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil.
Patil said the Central Crime Branch (CCB) has seized the bike and handed it over to the traffic police department for further action.
Screenshot from the video
Muniyappa
In the video, which is more than a minute long, 29-year-old Muniyappa, is seen zooming on his blue motorcycle. Beginning near Madiwala, the 13 km long flyover terminates at Electronic City where several IT offices are located.
"Muniyappa was speeding on the flyover because the lockdown is offering him the option of empty roads. The traffic is very less so he could manage that way," told CCB Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Kuldeep Jain to IANS.
Though the police could not figure out the exact day he pulled off the stunt, Jain said it could have happened in the past week itself as the city was under lockdown. "He was just trying to show off. He thought its bravery and fascinating to ride his 1,000 cc motorcycle at that mind-blowing speed," told Jain disapprovingly.
The rider shot the video from what looked like a helmet-mounted camera and began recording when his motorcycle was speeding around 90 kmph.
He started negotiating the traffic and increasingly hit the throttle, crossing a city bus, some auto-rickshaws, trucks, cars and other two-wheelers, as he zigzagged from left to right before getting onto the flyover.
Muniyappa got onto the flyover at a speed of 140 kmph to only accelerate much higher and immediately reached a speed of 200 km and above. With no traffic over a long stretch, he reached speeds ranging between 290-299 kmph for a good amount of time to only slow down after seeing a Toyota Etios, Innova and a two-wheeler.
Decelerating to just above 100 kmph, he quickly overtook the three vehicles to again race back to speeds ranging above 200 kmph as the video culminated.
It was not difficult to trace the violator as Muniyappa gave himself up by uploading the video on social media.
"He had uploaded the video on social media. We were able to get his Instagram handle. Based on his Instagram handle we used our cyber experts to procure his phone number and other details and we could get him," said Jain.
The DCP said racing, wheeling and related traffic offences are a regular feature in Bengaluru but mostly during the night. "We conduct special checks late in the night just to bust these speeding violators during normal times," he said.