Chowk Police Seize 14 Bikes Used to Ferry Tourists Near Temple

Chowk police seized 14 motorcycles and scooters on Wednesday after concluding that riders were using private two-wheelers to ferry pilgrims and tourists for money around Kashi Vishwanath Dham and nearby shrines without permission.

Station in-charge Vijay Kumar Shukla said the pattern had been noticed over several days: private bikes and scooters picking up devotees on routes that feed the temple corridor and Kal Bhairav, then dropping them for a fare. The rides looked like informal bike-taxi work, he said, even though the operators did not hold permission to run commercial services in that belt.

Kashi Vishwanath temple outpost in-charge Pushkar Dubey and Brahmnal outpost in-charge Himanshu Mishra were asked to build the case. Officers reviewed CCTV around the approaches and also followed some riders on foot and by vehicle to see where bookings were taken and where passengers were left. Police said the evidence showed the same machines moving repeatedly with paying riders through the tight lanes that already choke under festival and daily darshan traffic.

Congestion was one stated reason for the crackdown. Another was security. The temple precinct and its feeder streets are among the most watched public spaces in the city, and unauthorised paid transport adds unknown drivers into a crowd that police and temple security already manage minute by minute. Officials said the commercial use of private plates also muddies any later attempt to trace who moved whom if an incident occurs.

Action followed once the outposts reported they had enough to seize. Fourteen motorcycles and scooters were taken into custody on Wednesday. Police have not publicly released a full owner list or the exact registration numbers in the initial briefing. They have also not claimed that every seized machine belongs to an organised fleet; the public account so far points to individual riders treating private vehicles as hire bikes.

The practice is not new in Banaras. During peak pilgrimage months, private two-wheeler owners often hover near Godowlia, Chowk and the Vishwanath corridor offering short hops when autos cannot enter. What changed this week, according to Chowk, was sustained monitoring rather than a one-off challan drive. CCTV timelines and physical follows were used to show repeated paid runs, not a single lift for a relative.

Anyone whose bike was seized will learn the next steps through the station process: seizure memo, possible compounding or prosecution under motor vehicle and local regulation provisions, and whatever further inquiry the outposts open into booking patterns. Police have framed the Wednesday haul as enforcement against unauthorised commercial activity, not as a blanket ban on devotees sharing a ride with a known person.

For visitors, the practical message is simpler. Paid bike taxis without permission remain a risk in the temple lanes, and Wednesday's seizures show Chowk is willing to lift machines after surveillance rather than only warn riders at the spot. Temple-bound pilgrims who need a last-mile ride are still expected to use permitted transport options outside the restricted stretches.

The investigation continues on how the bookings were arranged and whether any larger organiser sits behind the riders. Until that work finishes, the verified public facts are the 14 seized two-wheelers, the named outpost officers who built the file, and the station's statement that paid ferrying without permission was the reason for the action.