PUNE: Tentacles of road rage resurfaced on the service road of Old Pune-Mumbai highway at Kasarwadi on Monday night when two persons travelling in a luxury car picked up a brawl with a 35-year-old trader in another four-wheeler over honking, once again showcasing lack of patience among motorists while driving.
The suspects rained kicks and blows on the complainant, Lalit Bafna, a resident of Dapodi. Bafna also thought that the suspects had snatched his gold chain worth Rs28,000 and lodged a complaint accordingly.
The Bhosari police, too, registered the offence under Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of IPC. "But on Tuesday morning, Bafna found the chain lying under the seat of his car. He has informed us about it," said sub-inspector K K
Landge, who is probing the case.
He said Bafna was a trader from Dapodi. He had gone to Mumbai on Monday and was returning home late in the night. When he reached Kasarwadi near
Kalasagar restaurant around 11.15pm, he had to stop because of a luxury car parked on the service road. "The road has become narrow because of
Metro and other works," Landge said.
He said Bafna was unable to move forward because of the parked car and started honking. "Irked over it, the two suspects got down from the luxury car and started abusing Bafna," he said.
When Bafna challenged them for wrongly parking their car, one of the suspects opened the door of Bafna's car and started beating him up. "Bafna suffered injuries in the attack. When crowd started gathering around them, the suspects sat in their car and drove towards Pune," Landge said.
The sub-inspector said a two-wheeler rider rushed to help Bafna. After parking his car along the road, Bafna chased the car on the two-wheeler. "They trailed it till Phugewadi. But then it disappeared," Landge said.
He said the police were checking the CCTV footage in Kasarwadi to trace the luxury car. "We have collected the footage from several establishments along the service road in Kasarwadi," Landge said.
