Mumbai: Auto driver assaulted by minors, claims he was told to ‘go to Pakistan’

He claimed that as he was passing from Kanjur village on the Eastern Express Highway, three youths started tailing him on a Honda Deo motorcycle. “They kept going back and forth around my auto. Amid this, one of them said ‘tum Pakistani idhar nahin rehneka, Pakistan jao’ and ‘Kashmir hamne le liya hain’… they made several other derogatory remarks. I kept riding my auto till they blocked my path and started to beat me up,” Qureshi said. “I got scared as it appeared to be their locality and a crowd had assembled. However, someone called the police. A police team reached the spot and escorted me to the police station.”

Qureshi said that the police recorded his statement and registered an FIR. Within an hour, the three youths were detained. “However, the police allowed them to go as they were minors.”

A police officer said that the youths have claimed that the auto driver knocked down their bike and hence, they beat him up. “One of them has an injury mark near his eye. Hence, their version cannot be completely ruled out. We are awaiting hospital reports,” the officer added.

The youths have been booked under bailable sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 298 (uttering, words, etc, with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

Senior Inspector of Vikhroli police, Sanjay Joshi, said, “The three were allowed to go as they were minors. Based on the sections under which they have been booked, they do not need to be arrested.”