If unchecked, road rage could snowball into jungle raj: HC

Expressing anguish over the rise in the incidents of road rage including that of a policeman attacking a woman near Golf Links here, the Delhi High Court today said if these remain unchecked, they will "snowball into a jungle raj with only the physically fittest amongst us surviving".
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw further said that everyone on the road appears to be of "short fuse". The court took suo motu cognizance of media reports regarding an incident in which a head constable of Delhi Traffic Police had allegedly hit a woman with a brick in a fit of rage after she refused to bribe him.

"The incidents of what has come to be known as road rage in the city are now on the rise and are being reported regularly. Commuters, on the smallest of the provocation, are known to have hit out at their fellow commuters violently, sometime also fatally.
"Everyone on the roads appears to be of short fuse. No solution, at least to our knowledge, has been proposed till now and in fact we are not even aware whether the issue is being addressed by the police or the other authorities concerned at all. Now, we have a case where perhaps the traffic policeman also has displayed such rage, rather than control the others," the court said.

"Alas! The citizens also appear to be wanting in performance of their duties. Such a situation, if remains unchecked, will snowball into a jungle raj with only the physically fittest amongst us surviving," it also said.
The incident had occurred in Golf Links area on May 11 following an altercation between the policeman Satish Chandra and Ramanjeet Kaur, a mother of three, over an incident of traffic rule violation.

The incident was captured on camera and the video clip showed the woman picking up a brick and hurling it at the policeman's bike while the constable was seen attacking her back with another brick.

Soon after the incident, Chandra was initially suspended and then dismissed from service with immediate effect as the incident triggered widespread outrage.
Chandra was arrested after a criminal case was filed against him and later remanded in 14 days of judicial custody by a trial court.