Stunt bikers hold India Gate to ransom

Many in the city head to India Gate on the weekends. So does a clan of stunt bikers. Only difference - they perform dangerous stunts by riding rashly in between the traffic, posing danger to those on the road and triggering chaos in the area. 

On Saturday night, Delhi Police put up barricades after receiving information about a group of such bikers and booked three of them under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act. The accused - identified asSunny Malhotra, Aman and Himanshu, all in their twenties - were performing stunts, bringing the traffic almost to a standstill for an hour. 

"The incident was reported around 2am. Sunny and Aman are residents of Paharganj while Himanshu lives in Trilokpuri. We have confiscated the registration certificates of the bikes and they will appear in court on Monday," said a police officer of New Delhi. 

However, one of the accused, Sunny, denied being one of the bikers . "I was there with my wife but had sent her home as it was getting late. The police mistook me for the bikers," he said. He was allegedly riding a modified Enfield bearing registration number DL13SF0004. 

Sources said these bikers flouted all traffic norms under the nose of the administration. "They are a group of 18-20 youth from various areas in Delhi, who endanger the commuters' life. India Gate has almost become a weekend exercise for them," said a source. 

A police officer, however, said: "They are flouting traffic norms and the law has to be made stringent to deal with them. Last Saturday , one biker met with an accident at Tilak Marg. Another biker picked him up in a jiffy and fled. We do our best to stop them by putting barricades at places. If we try to follow them, they drive like maniacs , causing chaos on the road." 

According to eyewitnesses, 12-15 bikers went several rounds around the outer circle of India Gate, performing hazardous stunts, and were soon joined by many more. Dhriti Vardhan, an IT professional, said: "I was with my friends at India Gate when I suddenly heard bike revving everywhere . We came to the entry of the parking lot and saw the most bizarre things happening on the road. Some were standing on the bikes while others were riding in a zigzag manner at a high speed, cutting through the traffic. Several cars and bikes stopped and pulled to a side waiting for them to go." 

Sujit Roy, an education consultant , said: "They almost hijacked the area. We were wondering where the police were. Last week, the same thing happened and there were over 50 bikers." 

The bikers reportedly started from Tilak Marg near ITO, a stone throw's away from Tilag Marg police station. Ashwani Kumar, a businessman, said as he turned left towards Tilak Marg from ITO, three bikes heading rashly towards India Gate overtook him. "They even performed stunts near the police station," he said.