Mumbai: In an incident of road rage in Pune, a journalist employed with the Pune edition of a leading national daily, was beaten up by two men on Thursday night after an argument at a traffic signal near Tilak Road. The victim, Jibran Nazir, said the assailants told him that they would ‘send him back to Kashmir’, following which his motorcycle was damaged by the accused.
Swargate police have registered a case of assault and arrested one assailant, while the search for the other is underway. On Thursday night, around 10.45pm, when Nazir was passing by Girija Chowk near Tilak Road in Pune, he got stuck in a traffic jam. Nazir was riding a motorcycle with registration number HP-24-B-1114, when one of the accused, Abdul Shaikh (32), started honking, asking him to move ahead, which led to a heated exchange.
Shaikh said, “Oh HP waale aage chal” (Move ahead, you Himachal Pradesh person) and pushed his motorcycle from behind. In retaliation, Nazir snapped, saying he wasn’t from HP but from Kashmir, which aggravated the matter. An irate Shaikh and his accomplice stopped Nazir, got off their motorcycles and began assaulting him.
The police said the accused snatched Nazir’s mobile phone, damaged his bike and fled. After Nazir noted down the motorcycle number, he approached the Swargate Police and registered a complaint. Within hours, the police located one of the assailants, Shaikh, while the search for his accomplice, Dattatray Lavate (35), is still on.
Ashok Kadam, the senior police inspector of Swargate police station said, “Shaikh had come to the police station with his parents and apologised to Nazir. However, Shaikh was arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for rash driving (section 279), causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others (section 337), punishment for voluntarily causing hurt (section 323) and punishment for wrongful restraint (section 341).” In the light of recent attacks on Kashmiri students in Maharashtra, the police clarified this assault was not an aftermath of Pulwama attack but a case of road rage.