7 ride one scooter in Odisha, fined Rs 21,500 after video goes viral: ‘6 of them were minors'

Indian Express

a day ago

In a dangerous and bizarre breach of traffic rules, seven youngsters were caught cramming onto a single scooter and recklessly speeding through the streets of Odisha's Sambalpur late Sunday night. Their antics, captured on video, quickly went viral on social media and prompted swift police action.
The group was seen riding at high speed, shouting obscenities, and creating a public disturbance. After being alerted by the viral clip, police reviewed CCTV footage to trace the vehicle. The rider was detained, the scooter seized, and a fine of Rs 21,500 was imposed, as per The Times of India. The report also said six of the seven were found to be minors.
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TOI quoted Ramdas Tudu, RTO (Sambalpur), as saying, 'Dhanupali police informed us about the incident. We have penalised them of Rs 21,500. We are requesting people not to break traffic rules and or do stunts.'
Tophan Bag, the SDPO, told TOI, 'We got the video around 11:30pm on Sunday where seven were riding a single scooter recklessly while shouting in filthy language. As per the instruction of SP, Dhanupali and Khetrajpur police started tracking the vehicle and traced the scooter.'
The video of the incident has gone viral, and has sparked outrage online. One user commented, 'Is there any medium to report such peanuts riding bikes and scooty in very high speeds without any protective gear, risking lives of many? Coz I see many around me and despite the urge to stop and hit them, I can't coz then I'll be the culprit.'
Another user wrote, 'We don't need to pay taxes.. you can recover all of the money from the fines itself from various sectors.' A third user took a dig, writing, 'They were practicing for the 26th January parade.'
Some also raised questions about policy enforcement, with one commenter saying, 'Why govt not cancelling license because two wheller company will say our turnover is going down.'
According to Brut India, Odisha saw a whopping 5.6 million e-challans issued in 2024, collecting over Rs 2,398 crore in fines, a staggering figure that highlights both the scale of traffic violations and the state's growing digital enforcement.