A Bengaluru AI traffic camera issued a Rs 500 challan after mistaking a guitar carried by a solo rider for a pillion passenger without a helmet, prompting the city traffic police to direct the affected citizen to seek rectification.
The incident took place on September 15 on the Outer Ring Road between Hebbal and Tin Factory, according to a report by PTI published by Deccan Chronicle. Souvik Dutta was riding his wife’s two-wheeler alone while wearing a helmet and carrying a guitar slung across his back.
The automated system generated a traffic notice against the vehicle’s registered owner, Dutta’s wife, for “pillion riding without helmet”. The notice number cited in Dutta’s post was 86202541, and the penalty amount was Rs 500.
Dutta shared an image of the camera-captured violation on X on September 26, tagging the Bengaluru Traffic Police and requesting that the challan be cancelled. “I was riding my wife’s two-wheeler alone with my guitar slung on my back in Bangalore,” he wrote in the post. He questioned the reliability of AI-based violation detection after the system identified the guitar as an unhelmeted pillion rider.
The Bengaluru Traffic Police responded by asking Dutta to email automationpubbcp@ksp.gov.in for violation rectification. The response indicates that disputed notices generated through the automated system are required to be taken up through the department’s designated correction channel.
The case shows how automated enforcement can shift the initial burden of correcting an alleged violation to citizens, even when the evidence image may contain an object that the system misclassifies. In this instance, the reported error affected the registered owner of the vehicle rather than the person who was riding it.
The reported incident does not establish how frequently similar misidentifications occur or whether the camera system has been modified following the complaint. The immediate next step identified by the traffic police is Dutta’s submission of the case for review through the department’s official email address.
