Guwahati, April 3: If you want to ride around town without a helmet and don’t want to get caught, you have to be the health minister of Assam.

Three days after a helmet-less Himanta Biswa Sarma led a Youth Congress rally on a motorcycle and got away with a casual “God will protect me” statement, more than a 100 bikers taking part in separate political rallies in Tezpur today got a taste of police medicine.

The police cracked down on two rallies — one in support of Congress’s Mani Kumar Subba and the other for the AGP-BJP combine’s Joseph Toppo.

The bikers, from all across Tezpur constituency, were part of the processions taken out for the politicians when they were on their way to the returning officer to file their nomination papers.

“The bikes were detained and owners fined for violating traffic rules that included pillion-riding and not wearing helmets. Some 22 buses were also detained for participating in the rallies without permission. We will not spare anyone not adhering to the rules,” a senior police official said.

The bikers possibly found support in the health minister though, who had justified his helmet-less stint saying there was no threat to life and limb as such rallies moved at a very low speed.

Alas, not all share Sarma’s logic and faith in divine intervention.