‘Morning walks have become scary for a while now,’ say residents of Pune’s Aundh after miscreants assault senior citizen

“I could clearly see that they were drunk and absolutely not in their senses,” recalled Shetty. “First they asked me for money then one of them tried to snatch my phone and when I resisted, they attacked me with a big rod that one of them was carrying. I started running and managed to reach my office after which I got medical attention and eventually filed a police complaint.”

He was one of the three persons to have been attacked by the group in the early hours of Thursday morning, the police said. The others included Ramsobitkumar Mandal, a security guard working in the area and 77-year-old Samir Roychaudhary who had left for a morning walk like on any other when he was attacked. According to the police, the assailants wanted money.

These attacks have left residents and visitors in the area shaken and questions have been raised about the safety and security situation in the area.

“Samir sir was such a gentle and kind man, waking up every morning to go for his walks. The news of this attack has been very disturbing,” said Raman, the security guard at Sayali Garden housing complex where Roychaudhary lived.

The owner of the Poorvika Mobile Shoppe, in front of which Shetty was attacked, told The Indian Express, “I did not have any information about the incident as our shop opens at 10 am. I received a call from the police at around 4 pm yesterday informing me that such an incident had occurred in front of my shop. The CCTV is functional in front of the shop, and I am sure all the miscreants will be caught by the police soon.”

Security issue not new

Lakshmi Ghatage and Nupura Kinkar, two joggers who who were also out for a run in the Aundh area on Thursday morning, reported being jeered at by a rowdy group of youngsters on a scooty that they think was probably the same group that attacked the three people.

“We were just on our warm up run and it was only four of us at Nagraj Road when we suddenly saw some boys, speaking loudly and driving their scooty in a zigzag manner.Thankfully we had two boys with us who immediately screamed at them so they just passed us by. Later on we learned about the attacks and wondered if it was the same group,” they said.

Nupura, stressing that safety is an everyday concern, said, “We usually run on the wrong side of the road because when you run on the correct side of the road, often strangers on two-wheelers come and touch you inappropriately from behind. Even though we are a big group and every morning around 20 of us gather, it often happens that some people are faster and some are behind at a distance. Incidents like these only add to the fear that keeps us on high alert while running.”

Hema, a 64-year-old and a resident of Aundh who frequently goes on morning walks between 5 and 5:30 am said that the area has increasingly become unsafe for walkers for quite some time now. She said, “I have never seen such an incident, but it has happened with my friends. I prefer to walk in groups of two or three to avoid being attacked. I always keep my phone on me. Morning walks in Aundh have been scary for the last two or three years.”

Raman, having worked as a security personnel in Aundh for over ten years, said, “All the old people in the area go for morning walks, and most of them walk alone.Such incidents happen almost every week, where drunk youngsters assault old people for money or just for fun in the early hours of the morning. The miscreants can escape since the old people are defenceless, and the streets are deserted at that hour. Some old people carry sticks with them to ward off any trouble, but I do not think it is very useful.”