Thane, July 9, 2026: The Thane Sessions Court has acquitted a 36-year-old man who was accused of allegedly assaulting traffic police personnel and obstructing them from discharging their official duties. He was also accused of driving on the wrong side of the road. The court held that the prosecution had failed to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations of rash and dangerous driving, observing that merely producing a copy of the e-challan was insufficient in the absence of reliable supporting evidence such as video footage or CCTV recordings.
“To establish the offence punishable under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act, the prosecution is required to prove that the accused drove the motor vehicle at a speed or in a manner that was dangerous to the public, having regard to the nature, condition and use of the road, the amount of traffic existing or reasonably expected thereon, and all other surrounding circumstances. Where the allegation is of driving on the wrong side of the road, the prosecution must further establish that such driving created danger to other users of the public road or caused obstruction to public traffic. Again, the prosecution has not proved the videographed footage or CCTV recordings. The other evidence is not fully reliable for the aforementioned reasons. Mere production of the challan copy by the Investigating Officer would not be sufficient to prove these ingredients,” the court observed.
Prosecution's Case
According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on August 21, 2021, at Anandnagar Junction on Ghodbunder Road in Thane, where traffic police had been deployed to manage severe congestion caused by potholes following heavy rainfall.
The prosecution alleged that the accused was riding his motorcycle on the wrong side of the road when traffic personnel attempted to issue an e-challan.
It claimed that he allegedly became aggressive, abused the officers, grabbed the complainant's uniform, damaged his shirt, assaulted police personnel, threatened them, and damaged a mobile phone used to record the incident.
The accused denied all allegations during the trial, contending that he was assaulted by police personnel and falsely implicated when he attempted to lodge a complaint against them.
Court Finds Gaps In Evidence
While analysing the evidence, the court found several shortcomings in the prosecution's case. It observed that although the prosecution claimed the entire incident had been captured on a mobile phone, the electronic evidence was never properly proved before the court despite references to a video, screenshots and a pen drive during the investigation. The court described the missing video as the "best corroborative evidence" available to the prosecution.
The judge also noted inconsistencies in the testimony of the prosecution witnesses. The complainant, a traffic police constable, spoke mainly about verbal abuse and obstruction but did not specifically describe any assault or injuries suffered by him, whereas other police witnesses gave a different account of the alleged scuffle.
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The court further pointed out that no independent witness was examined, even though the alleged incident occurred at a busy public junction during evening hours when several members of the public were present. It held that the absence of independent testimony required greater scrutiny of the police witnesses' evidence.
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