Ahmedabad: Commuter booked for not letting cops take picture for app

AHMEDABAD: A 22-year-old man from Raipur was booked by Paldi police on Sunday as he did not allow police to click a picture of him and his licence for city police’s Tarkash app. This came even as city police commissioner Sanjay Srivastava said cops cannot compel anyone to provide their pictures. Srivastava had earlier told TOI, “People can simply say no to the police if they are asked to be clicked.”
However, city police personnel do not seem to consider this and continue to take pictures of people to gather data for their app.
On Sunday, Parth Parmar, a resident of Zankar Flats in Raipur, was riding his motorcycle from Jamalpur Bridge to Paldi, a team of Paldi police stopped him.
The cops claimed that they were holding a seatbelt and helmet drive at the instruction of the police commissioner to reduce fatal accidents. Usually, traffic police hold drives regarding traffic violations. When the cops saw Parmar, they stopped him and asked him for his driving licence to click a picture of it and told him to stand so they could photograph him. Parmar refused that and told the cops that they could seize his vehicle. The cops claimed he was arguing aggressively after which they booked him for obstructing them in their duty.
The Tarkash app was launched in December last year by Harsh Sanghavi, minister of state for home, and the city police commissioner. Sources in the police said they were told to prepare an extensive database for the Tarkash app.