A rider with black helmet. Picture by Uma Shanker Dubey

Jamshedpur, June 15: Youths sporting fashionable helmets while riding their latest speed demons would have to settle for relatively humble headgear from now on.

Reacting to a spate of crimes by offenders wearing crash helmets with dark visors, police have banned the use of such helmets in the district. East Singhbhum superintendent of police Arun Oraon today issued an order in this regard.

For the first 10 days staring today, police will ask all motorcyclists and scooterists wearing such helmets not to wear them anymore. “After 10 days, police will file cases against all offenders. We will also impose a fine on the offenders,” police officials said.

According to sources, police have taken the decision after taking certain serious cases into account. After going through the FIRs and the subsequent investigations, the authorities have found that the crash helmets with dark visors aided criminals in committing a number of serious offences.

The recent murder of Durga Oil Mill owner Vikash Debuka was a case in point.

The police, after examining trends of criminal acts in the past one year, found out that the culprits were all allegedly wearing crash helmets with dark visors at the scene of the crimes. “Be it murder, extortion, shootout for extortion, loot and contract killing — such helmets were used by all the criminals,” police officials said.

Oraon told The Telegraph that the decision to ban the helmets, which aided criminals, was justified.

“Wearing a crash helmet with black visors is one of the ploys that goons use. We are not banning crash helmets. Only those with dark glasses will not be allowed. The visor should be transparent. The rule has to be implemented strictly,” he added.

Oraon said he would also issue a stringent directive to stop the sale of such helmets. He added that the police would conduct an awareness programme to dissuade the people from using such helmets. Deputy superintendent of police (traffic) F.K.N. Kuzur said officials posted in any of the police stations or traffic inspectors might stop and interrogate motorcyclists from today onwards. He added that the new rule would be applicable to both men and women.