Chennai police impound 10 sports cars for racing, drivers deny charge

CHENNAI: Ten high-end sports cars, including

Porsche

,

Lamborghini

and

Ferrari

, were impounded by police near Chennai on Sunday for allegedly over-speeding on the

East Coast Road

. The cars were driven by men aged below 30 years.

While the police claimed the men were racing on the stretch near Akkarai, the drivers claimed that they had gone for a breakfast event organised by a car company.

The 'problem' started when one of the men, identified as Raghav Krishnan who was driving a Lamborghini, was arrested by police after they claimed that his car had run over the foot of a police inspector. Police booked Krishnan for rash and negligent driving, and criminal intimidation.

Police said there were several complaints from the residents about car and two-wheeler racing on the ECR. Acting on the complaint, a police team started checking vehicles on Sunday morning.

At 6.30am, police tried to stop vehicles near Akkarai. However, vehicles didn’t stop. Following this, more police personnel were deployed to stop the cars at

Uthandi

toll gate.

“The car users refused to show papers. They didn’t cooperate with police who were acting on complaints from the local residents. We received complaints from locals that they drive in rash and negligent manner which is dangerous for pedestrians,” said Neelankarai traffic enforcement inspector Soundararajan.

After detaining the cars in one bay of the tollgate for nearly four hours, the police team shifted all the cars to an area near Kanathur police station.

The ten high-end luxury cars drew a lot of attention. People thronged the vehicles to take selfies which were shared on social media.

Meanwhile, the drivers of the cars put up a video on Facebook claiming that these high-end cars produce a loud noise even if they go at 50 km/h, which people 'misunderstand' for racing. He also said the police had asked them not to drive in groups as it is a public nuisance and causes noise pollution.