Mumbai: Two hawkers arrested for attempting to abduct sub-inspector, assault

The sub-inspector, however, said Bhoiwada police station, where he went to register a complaint about the assault, had initially turned him away and registered a complaint only after a senior police inspector’s intervention.

The incident took place around 5.30 pm on November 24, when the sub-inspector and his wife were visiting his brother at KEM Hospital, the police said.

“My brother asked us to get him a bottle of water. So, we were at a shop outside KEM Hospital when a person passed a lewd comment at my wife,” the sub-inspector told The Indian Express.

When the man passed lewd comments for the second time, the PSI stopped him. “My wife asked me to ignore it. But the hawker passed a comment for the third time. I couldn’t stop myself, I slapped him after which people started to gather,” the policeman told The Indian Express.

Soon, a group of hawkers started surrounding him and the PSI showed them his identity card. “One of them snatched it. I started looking for help but there were no policemen nearby. The group started assaulting me,” he said.

He said he was forced to get into a taxi. “There were four people inside the taxi who started assaulting me. I tried raising the alarm and also requested them to let me go as my brother was in hospital. But they did not,” he said.

A pedestrian shouted that a patrolling police team was around. “They got scared and the driver stopped the taxi. The patrolling team got hold of them and took everyone to the police station,” said the sub-inspector.

A police inspector posted at Bhoiwada, however, asked him why he hadn’t dialled the control room for help when the altercation began. Later, the senior police inspector ordered that a case be registered against the hawkers. Two hawkers, Sandeep Shukla and Shiromani Shukla, were arrested and two others are wanted in the case.

The Bhoiwada police booked them under relevant sections for kidnapping, insulting the modesty of a woman, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation and unlawful assembly.

Senior police inspector Ramchandra Jadhav, Bhoiwada police station, confirmed the arrests but refuted the allegation that there was a delay in filing the complaint. “They were in the process of registering an FIR when I was informed,” he said.