MUMBAI: An executive vice-president with a pharma company was assaulted by a group of autorickshaw drivers at Kandivali East on Wednesday night after he asked one of them to drive carefully. Nose bleeding, he managed to click photos of the driver and the auto. But he claimed that the local police station took time to respond and he had to go to the hospital on his own.After a residents’ association took up the issue, the police called him on Thursday to record his statement.
When contacted, senior police officials said they had never refused to lodge an FIR or turned him away.
Samir Kazi, 48, the complainant, is also a lawyer. Around 9.30 pm on Wednesday, he was walking his dog at Kandivali East. He was trying to avoid a puddle, when an autorickshaw brushed his foot. Kazi says he yelled at the driver and asked him to drive safely as he was very rash. “He took a U-turn and came back. I thought he would argue with me but he started to punch me, unprovoked. I got disoriented for a few moments,” Kazi said.
The driver then gestured at passing autos and they halted. The group of drivers rained blows on Kazi and his dog. At one point, they also tried to bundle Kazi and his dog into an auto but he resisted. “My nose was bleeding and I had suffered bruises on the collarbone, stomach and back,” said Kazi. He somehow managed to take a photo of a driver and the auto.
But when he reached the Samta Nagar police station to lodge a complaint, he was told that the duty officer was having her meal. He explained that he was in pain and needed to be rushed to a hospital. The cops asked him to go the hospital on his own and come back later to lodge a complaint.
“My wife was weeping. I waited at the police station for about 15 minutes before leaving and going to a private doctor on my own. On Thursday morning, I reached out to the Lokhandwala Residents’ Association and the association’s office-bearer Shishir Shetty reached out to the police. He also accompanied me to a government hospital for getting a medical examination done,” said Kazi.
Senior police officials said they had been calling Kazi all day on Thursday to come forward and lodge a complaint, but he was occupied. “On Wednesday, we did not ignore his complaint , but there is a procedure to be followed. He was not willing to wait for the same,” said an officer.