A 55-year-old taxi driver was allegedly killed by a passenger when he refused to ride. In a fit of rage the passenger, Basawraj Melenamani, 30, hit the driver with a paver block multiple times in his head and he died on the spot.
Hours after the incident, the Dadar Police arrested the accused, who was found loitering in the same area.
Around 6.30 in the morning the Dadar police received a control call that a person was lying in a pool of blood near Kabutar Kabutarkhana in Dadar, a team reached there and sent the man to KEM hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
While checking the CCTV camera it was clear that the taxi driver identified as Chabiraj Jaiswar had an argument with an unknown person prior to the incident. The accused, a fruit vendor, was also captured in the CCTV camera while hitting the taxi driver with a paver block multiple times.
The Dada police then registered an offence of murder and bagan tracing the accused, soon the police team learnt that the accused Melenamani is a local fruit vendor. Hours later he was found loitering near Kabutarkhana stone throw away distance from the spot. The accused was unaware of the murder and police suspect him to be in an inebriated state at the time of incident.
In his statement to the police the accused said that, between 1 to 2 am on Sunday he stopped the taxi and asked the driver to drop him at Ambedkar Nagar near Prabhadevi railway station however the driver refused which led to an argument between them. Soon the argument turned violent when Jaiswar kicked him in his abdomen, the accused then pushed him to the ground, took a paver block and hit him on his head multiple times and escaped from there, said police.
Melenamani will be produced before the court on Monday. Jaiswar, a resident of Mankhurd is survived by his wife and a daughter, said police.
