3 held, booked for beating constable

The Shivaji Park police has arrested and booked three youngsters for assaulting a constable attached to the same police station. The incident occurred early on Tuesday when the constable tried to break up a fight between the youngsters and a taxi driver.

According to the police, around 1.30 am, constable Ganpat Chauhan (53) was on duty outside Shiv Sena Bhavan when he heard loud noises from near the petrol pump at the junction. He also saw a youngster on a motorcycle kick a stationary cab and he went to check on the same.

“When he went there he asked what happened to the cabbies and they told him that the three youngsters got angry when two cab drivers refused them ride. They allegedly wanted to go to KEM Hospital and the drivers refused to ply,” said a senior officer.

Investigators said that when Mr Chauhan asked the youngsters what had happened, they started arguing with him too. “They then beat him up. The accused allegedly hit Chauhan’s head with his lathi,” said the officer. Officers added that the taxi drivers present did not come to the rescue of the constable and did not even rush him to the hospital when he lay there in pain.

“The constable had to call other policemen and they came and took him to the hospital where he was administered with six stitches for injuries on his forehead, above his eye,” the officer said.

The Shivaji Park police station, which is investigating the case, pieced together the incident with the help of the CCTV camera footage. The footage collected showed signs that led the cops to suspect that the youngsters were in an inebriated state as they were swaying and appeared to be unstable on their feet.

“The youngsters were on three separate bikes and asked the two taxi drivers to take them to KEM Hospital. When the drivers refused, one of them got angry and called his other friends who were waiting at a distance. The trio then started arguing with the cabbies that refused them and when Mr Chauhan tried to intervene, they beat him up,” said a senior officer.

Since the CCTV footage clearly displayed the bike model and number of one of the accused, the police has a lead in tracking them down. The three accused were arrested the same evening and were found to be residents of Prabhadevi.

They have been identified as Santike Rathod (18), Akshay Ansurkar (19) and Aniket Mahadev (23). They have been booked under the IPC and remanded to police custody.