Auto-rickshaw driver drags traffic assistant hundreds of metres, flees to avoid 'a case'

A horrific video of a traffic assistant being dragged by a CNG-run auto-rickshaw for a couple of hundred metres after he tried to stop the vehicle at a traffic signal has been making rounds on social media.

Farhan Rahman, a passenger who was inside the vehicle at the time, shared the video on Facebook last night (13 December), saying he and his wife got on the vehicle from near Bashundhara City Shopping Mall.

He wrote that the traffic assistant signalled the auto-rickshaw to stop at a normal traffic light at Karwan Bazar, but the driver tried to move ahead with other vehicles. The traffic assistant ran alongside the vehicle and, at one point, grabbed the right side door to make the driver stop.

However, the driver chose to drive away recklessly in an attempt to avoid a case, and dragged the youth for almost 200 metres before he fell on the road.

Farhan wrote that he and his wife repeatedly asked the driver to stop, but he refused. "If he had stopped at the signal, there would have been no problem. He did this to avoid 'a case'," he said, adding that there was no urgency for the passengers.

The driver later dropped the passengers in a lane near Banglamotor and fled the area when pedestrians tried to catch him, the post said. 

Farhan said he later provided the video and photo of the driver and the vehicle with its registration number to a police sergeant at Banglamotor.

According to JC Forhad, a traffic sergeant usually stationed around Banglamotor and Bashundhara City, the driver could not be apprehended immediately, though efforts are ongoing.

The traffic assistant received primary treatment for his injuries at a hospital, he added.

He added that traffic policemen now regularly encounter such incidents after 5 August. "Most of the drivers do not willingly stop or show their documents when they're asked to do so," he said.