Traffic collision near Narendrapuram Junction being pushed towards settlement

Hi

Incident: “I was driving Toyota Glanza and was waiting on the NH-16 highway at Naredrapuram junction to turn towards Rajahmundry Airport i.e. onto the Korukonda road. Once I was sure that I had clear passage to take the turn, I went ahead and then a bike out of no where drove very much rashly and hit the left corner of my vehicle (at 11:40 AM). The biker had fallen off his bike and immediately started asking that he wants me to take him to a hospital for an MRI scan. Me not knowing what to do at that time called 112 and requested for police assistance and an ambulance to be sent as well. I got the contact details of the bike rider (who informed did not have an insurance for their vehicle, refused to inform if they have an RC for the vehicle and a valid DL and did not wear a helmet either) in the mean time. The ambulance arrived before the police and the bike driver was transported to Government General Hospital. The police arrived at the scene ten minutes post the ambulance left and asked me to follow them back in my vehicle to the Rajanagaram police station. The bike was not transported back as the vehicle was locked and the rider had taken the key with them. Once at the station, I was asked to handover my vehicle documents and key (at 12:30 PM). No acknowledgement was provided to me and the police simple refused to take my complaint about the incident until they received a medical report from the Gov’t hospital. So, I head to the Gov’t hospital and after a couple of X-rays, the CMO informs that they are clear and no injuries have been sustained by the bike rider. The rider however proceeded to lodge their statement with the police check-post present at the hospital (this was at 5 in the evening) and the police over there asked me to head back to the Rajanagaram police station. Once I was at the Rajanagaram police station, I was informed by the police that they have already received the complaint copy and the Medical report from the Gov’t hospital and when I insisted them to take my complaint on record as well, I was informed by a PC that no matter whose mistake it was, the bigger vehicle would always be at fault and pushed us towards settlement. After waiting for gruelling 4 hours, the rider finally arrived at the Rajanagaram police station and insisted that we pay them a sum of INR 50000/-

When I informed that I was not willing to pay the amount and wanted to pursue the case further and take it up to the court, the rider and the people who were with him tried to spin a tale informing that we started abusing them on the basis of their caste (knowing that they had no legal grounding on the actual case). I only came to know about their caste only when a PC approached me informing that I need to settle this issue or be accused in SC/ST atrocities act that they belonged to SC/ST.

My mother who was with me at the time of incident, who had two spinal surgeries herself had nothing to eat from the morning till the end of the discussion. She had pushed me towards settlement and even settled the issue for INR 20000/- against my wish.”

I want to know what would be my options in this case if it (god forbid) were ever to happen again. I tried to persuade my mother to get a good quality dash-cam installed as it can be used as evidence, but she just doesn’t seem to believe that it would help in anyway as they wanted to frame us (yes, both me and my mom) in a false SC/ST atrocity case.

Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks a lot in advance for all the advices to be received.