MUMBAI, JUNE 12: Four constables brought a stone down on the head of a retired Air Force officer on Thursday night after slapping him around in an inebriated state. The officer, 48-year-old L P Gaud, claims he had earlier witnessed the foursome whacking hawkers in the vicinity.Gaud says he was returning from his office at Ghatkopar, at around 12.10 am, when he stopped near Vishal Bar at Asalpha, on the Ghatkopar-Andheri Link Road . Suddenly, he felt a heavy slap on his face. ``I asked the man to identify himself. But one of them hit my head with a stone and began fisting and kicking me till I fell unconscious.'' They told him they were constables with the Special Branch and were on night patrol, he says.A Saki Naka police patrol jeep then pulled up with Inspector Gatade in command. The officer reprimanded the foursome and asked them why they were creating a nuisance. Gaud, his head bleeding, was then driven to Rajawadi Hospital by a good samaritan. The medical report of the hospital, where he receivedthree stitches, notes that Gaud had been assaulted by a police constable. The Saki Naka police refused to lodge an FIR but recorded Gaud's statement (SDE No 40). However, the duty officer at the Saki Naka police station pleaded ignorance to the case. ``I was on duty last night and I don't recall any such incident taking place in our jurisdiction,'' he told Express Newsline.
