Assistant professor arrested for torching 20 cars in Karnataka

KALABURAGI/BELAGAV : Public were in for a shock when the Belagavi police arrested an assistant professor for allegedly torching 20 cars in Kalaburagi and Belagavi in the last one week. The arrested Dr Ameet Gaikwad(37) is working as Assistant professor in the department of Pathology at Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS). He is a native of Kalaburagi and residing in Sadashivnagar in Belagavi, a press note from the police said. Dr Ameet Gaikwad is mentally ill and the torching incidents were neither political nor communal issues, said the press note.

Incidents of torching of cars, almost every night, had put police officials on their toes. On January 13, 14 and 15, nine cars in Kalaburagi were torched. On January 17th, seven cars parked on the roadside of an apartment building were set ablaze in Jadhav Nagar in Belagavi. On Wednesday night too, he was trying to torch a car, when police caught him red-handed. Of the nine cars he allegedly set ablaze in Kalaburagi, seven belong to doctors, police said. Police said they grew suspicious when they found him going in a car wearing helmet.

On Wednesday, he tried to set ablaze a car belonging one Rita D’Souza but she extinguished it just in time. Later, he torched two more cars in Camp Area. Locals nabbed him when he was about to torch another car in Vishweshwarnagar. However, Dr Gaikwad remained mute during the police interrogation.