Following an incident where two young women jumped out of a moving autorickshaw after the driver allegedly made obscene gestures and refused to stop the vehicle when they asked him to, the Thane police intensified their drive against autorickshaw drivers, checking their permits as well as their antecedents. The police also roped in the Regional Transport Office and autorickshaw drivers’ unions for the city-wide exercise, that includes verifying antecedents and bonafides of close to 50,000 rickshaw drivers in Thane. Meanwhile, on Monday night, the suspect auto driver Phulchand Gupta, was arrested by the Thane police. According to police sources, the incident took place around 8:30 pm on Sunday in Thane. The two victims, who hail from Ratnagiri, had come to Thane to attend a function and were staying at a relative’s place. The police said that on Sunday the two girls, aged 22 and 17 years, hailed an autorickshaw from the Naupada area in Thane to go to Kapurbawdi, where the function was slated to occur. However, on the way, the girls noticed the auto driver turning around to look at them and making obscene gestures, the police said. [related-post] “The girls asked the driver to stop the rickshaw. However, he increased the speed of the vehicle instead. The panic-stricken girls jumped out of the moving autorickshaw while it was passing by the Cadbury junction. They were taken to the Jupiter Hospital, and the hospital authorities informed us,” said an officer with the Vartak Nagar police station. Following the incident, the Thane police, in collaboration with the Thane traffic police and the Regional Transport Office, had intensified their exercise where antecedents of autorickshaw drivers were being checked in the wake of the Uber Cab incident in Delhi, and nabbed the accused on Monday night. “We asked for details of all autorickshaw drivers from the Transport Commissioner’s office. Following the incident, we also intensified the drive and contacted autorickshaw driver unions. With their help, we were checking for any autorickshaw drivers with criminal backgrounds, as well as those without proper permits or any other irregularities in their paperwork,” said Joint Commissioner of Police V V Lakshminarayan, Thane police. This is the second such incident in Thane, the first one being reported in August last year when a software engineer with the Tata Consultancy Services was on her way to Kolshet in an auto when at Kapurbawdi Naka, the auto driver drove straight towards Bhiwandi, instead of turning left for Kolshet. She then panicked, called out for help and jumped of the vehicle. She had to undergo two surgeries before she could be discharged. Senior Police Inspector D D Pagare said that inquiries were made with the help of auto drivers who ply in the Naupada area. gautam.mengle@expressindia.com
