AAP Karnataka condemns Bangalore ATM attack incident

Bangalore, Nov 20: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Karnataka on Wednesday expressed its support and sympathy for Jyothi Uday, the 44-year-old bank manager, who was brutally attacked inside a bank ATM here in broad daylight on Tuesday.

The woman was hit with a machete and was left bleeding by the attacker who fled with her money and mobile phone. The police were yet to catch hold of the culprit.

The AAP Karnataka condemned the incident and said in a press release that the incident is just a symptom and not the disease. "We need to understand what needs to be done to treat the disease," it said.

The AAP underlined some issues which it feels needs to be addressed to counter such incidents:

1) The number of police personnel in Bangalore has not gone up proportionally to the increase in population. There is an immediate need to increase the number of police personnel on the streets which will deter such activities.

2) Whatever police resources is available to the city, a large chunk is deployed in VIP/political security. We expect that the authorities realize that life of common citizens is as important as the VIP's and release the police force from such VIP duties.

3) Political interference prevents our police force from functioning honestly and efficiently. Its high time that the functioning of police is made independent of the political masters so that they perform their constitutional duties towards the common citizens of this city.

4) Police Reforms are desperately needed. Our present day Police Act is archaic and was written in 1861 (a good 150 years ago). That too was written by the British with an intent of controlling citizens as per wishes of the then rulers and not for the purpose of protecting citizens.

5) Police Complaints Authority, as ordered by Supreme court in 2006, needs to be established in true spirit and with necessary responsibility and authority, to ensure accountability of police force.

The AAP Karnataka said that it expects the state government to take an urgent cognizance of the matter and take immediate steps to encourage the police force to prevent such menace.

OneIndia News