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There is a petition circulating on the Indian internet — not on paper, not on Change.org, but in comment sections, retweets, and WhatsApp forwards with the kind of unanimous energy rarely seen outside cricket. The petition reads: "??? ?? ?? ????????? ?????????? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ??????" Translation for those who missed the memo: The Mahindra Thar should be officially declared India's National Hooligan Vehicle. ? We would dismiss this as internet hyperbole — except a fresh piece of evidence from Noida Sector 16 just made the petition feel less like a joke and more like a formal proposal to the Road Transport Ministry. A black Mahindra Thar. A busy car market. A 33-year-old man with a grudge about a music system installation. And the aftermath: five vehicles rammed, scooter riders leaping off moving vehicles to save their own lives, a broken side-view mirror left dangling as the Thar sped away, and one very expensive lesson in consequences. Watch the uncut footage below. ? Before we continue — check out DroneMitra and Newspatron on YouTube. India's roads look considerably less terrifying from 400 feet above. ? The Noida Sector 16 Rampage Video — Watch Closely This is the uncut incident footage from Noida Sector 16. Watch the black Thar enter frame from the wrong direction, strike the grey WagonR, knock motorcycles like bowling pins, narrowly miss the white Swift, and take out the scooter — whose riders you will see desperately bail off a moving vehicle to avoid being crushed. The Thar's side-view mirror breaks on impact and is left dangling as the driver accelerates away. ? Driver arrested the following day by Noida Phase 1 Police. Vehicle impounded. ?38,000 fine. Criminal case filed. This is the footage that did it. What Actually Happened in Noida Sector 16 Let us give you the full picture. The driver — a 33-year-old Delhi resident, Sachin Kumar Lohia — had recently purchased a second-hand Mahindra Thar. He drove to the Phase 1 car market in Sector 16 to get speakers installed. A music system. Because apparently the factory stereo was insufficient for announcing his arrival to the entire neighbourhood. At the shop, a verbal altercation broke out between him and the shopkeeper. Words were exchanged. Tempers rose. And then — rather than doing what every functional adult does in a dispute (pay up, walk out, and quietly fume on the drive home) — Sachin Lohia made the executive decision to use a 1.7-tonne SUV as a communication device. He drove out of the shop, onto the wrong side of the road, and proceeded to deliver his message to every vehicle in a 50-metre radius. The damage inventory: Grey Maruti WagonR — rammed head-on Multiple parked motorcycles — knocked over like bowling pins White Maruti Swift — missed by centimetres White scooter — struck; both riders jumped off a moving vehicle in desperation to avoid being crushed Thar's own side-view mirror — snapped, left dangling as the car sped away No fatalities — only because the scooter riders had the reflexes of people whose lives literally depended on it. Because they did. ? The Music System That Cost More Than It Was Worth Here is a number worth noting: ?38,000. That is the challan issued to Sachin Kumar Lohia after Noida Phase 1 police arrested him the following day using CCTV footage — which, given the sheer visibility of the incident on multiple cameras, was presumably not the most demanding investigation of 2025. His Thar was impounded. He was booked for rash driving and criminal intimidation. The bitter irony? He came to the Sector 16 market to install a speaker system — a modest ?5,000–8,000 job. What it ended up costing him: a ?38,000 fine, a confiscated Thar, a criminal case, and the permanent honour of being the face of every "Thar Driver IQ" meme on the Indian internet for the foreseeable future. ? The speakers, we assume, remain at the shop. This Was Not an Accident. It Was a Tantrum. This distinction deserves its own section because it consistently gets lost in viral outrage. This was not a driving error. No wet road, no brake failure, no sudden obstacle. This was a 33-year-old adult, in full control of his vehicle, making a conscious decision to use a motor vehicle as a weapon of intimidation in a public market because a shopkeeper annoyed him. That is not bad driving. That is criminal intent on four wheels. The Indian internet, to its credit, did not let this distinction slide: "Noida mein kahi traffic police hai??" "8 out of 10 Thar drivers violate traffic rules." "Wrong way bhi chala raha hai." "Thar should be banned in India." "Anand Mahindra, please take this vehicle back." ? HR 30 AA 4000 Mahindra Thar Stunt Fail: Haryana VIP Number Driver Slides Into Near-Crush Disaster https://newspatron.com/mahindra-thar-hr30aa4000-stunt-fail-haryana-vip-number/ This Is Not a Noida Problem. It Is a Thar Problem. If you think Noida Sector 16 was a one-off, the Thar Rampage Cinematic Universe respectfully disagrees. The incident above involved a Haryana-registered Thar with a VIP number plate — HR 30 AA 4000 — attempting a drift on a public road and very nearly turning it into a funeral procession. The number plate alone cost more than most people's monthly salary. The survival skill level: absolutely free and worth exactly that. One vehicle. Multiple states. One recurring story. The Thar's buyer-persona problem has nothing to do with Mahindra's engineering — which is genuinely competent. The problem is the cultural baggage that comes with the purchase. The Thar is marketed as a rugged, off-road beast built for the wild. What Mahindra did not account for is that for a significant subset of buyers, the "wild" they want to conquer is not a Spiti Valley mountain trail. It is the street outside their house, the car market in Sector 16, or the highway where they want to drift like a Bollywood action sequence. A ?15 lakh+ price tag and a muscular body kit should not come with an implicit licence to treat other people's lives as obstacles in your personal GTA session. But here we are. Again. Why High-End SUVs Are Becoming Coffins for the Young and Reckless https://newspatron.com/suv-accidents-young-drivers-safety-crisis/ The Sunroof-to-Rampage Pipeline India's SUV Recklessness Crisis The Thar is the most visible offender but not a lone actor. The recklessness epidemic covers the full SUV spectrum: Toyota Fortuners doing donuts at intersections, Scorpios with passengers standing through sunroofs at highway speeds, Boleros treating rural roads like rally stages. The pattern is consistent — the larger the vehicle, the smaller the perceived consequences. The Sunroof Stunt: Why Standing Out of Your Car Is the New Death Wish https://newspatron.com/sunroof-stunts-illegal-dangerous-trend/ Mandatory Dashcams The Only Neutral Witness Left Standing Without the CCTV footage from Sector 16, Sachin Lohia walks free. Every vehicle that bore the impact of his tantrum becomes just a story of "a Thar got hit in a market" — no driver, no accountability, no ?38,000 challan, no confiscated vehicle. This is why mandatory dashcams in India are not a luxury. They are a civic necessity. The bigger the vehicle parked near you, the more essential the dashcam becomes. Not to catch others — to protect yourself. When a 1.7-tonne SUV driven by an enraged person appears in your rearview mirror, the dashcam is the only thing that will tell the truth about what happens next. ? Consider getting one: Dashcam for Road Safety — Amazon India (Affiliate link — supports Newspatron) Conclusion The Road Needs a Different Conversation Not Just a Challan ?38,000 for nearly crushing people in a public market is not a deterrent. It is a parking fine with extra steps. Until penalty structures in India reflect the actual danger posed by reckless driving — revoked licences, mandatory driving re-tests, vehicle impoundment as a standard not an exception — this will keep happening. Different state. Different Thar. Same video. Same outrage cycle. Same inadequate consequences. The internet's petition was said in jest: ??? ?? ?? ????????? ?????????? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? But the underlying message is dead serious. The car is not the problem. The culture of impunity is. Fix that, and the Thar goes back to being what it was designed to be — a genuinely excellent off-road machine that deserves far better than the reputation its most irresponsible owners have handed it. ?? Drive safe. Install a dashcam. And if you see a black Thar in your rearview mirror driving like it owns the road — give it a very, very wide berth. ? ?? Caught reckless driving near you? Tag us. We report it. Got dashcam footage? Send it over. Every video shared is one more reason for better road enforcement in India. ? Instagram @qmit_kumar | ? Twitter/X @dronemitra | ? Telegram | ? Newspatron YouTube All links at newspatron.com | WhatsApp Channel | Reddit | Facebook | LinkedIn | RSS