Duo, cabby beaten up in road rage

KOLKATA: An entrepreneur returning to his south Kolkata home with a friend in an Uber was attacked with a baseball bat and hockey sticks by three men on VIP Road early on Friday when they tried to stop the accused from beating up another app-cab driver who had overtaken the trio’s car.

Rashbehari Avenue resident Mainak Debnath, who runs an animation production company, and his friend Partha Ranjan Dutta suffered swellings and injuries on their spine, shoulders and hands while their app-cab driver, Pradyut Das, sustained a fracture in his arm. Based on two different complaints registered by the entrepreneur as well as the app-cab driver, officers of Lake Town police station have started a case.

The injured app-cab driver, Pradyut Das

“Since none of them could take down the registration number of the car the men were travelling in, no arrest could be made till late on Friday,” said police.

The incident comes four months after an elderly man driving home with his daughter via Esplanade had the wind shield of their car smashed with a stone hurled by a young man from a scooter after their car grazed past the two-wheeler.

On Friday, around 1.15am, Debnath found a black sedan overtaking them near Keshtopur in a very rash manner and stopping before another app cab near Golaghata footbridge. The driver and two men came out of the car, pulled the app-cab driver out and started assaulting him.

“I asked my driver to slow down. Our driver first got out of the car to save him when the trio attacked him. When I, along with my friend, got out to save them, one of the men opened their car boot, brought out a baseball bat and hockey sticks and started beating us. As the focus shifted on us, the app-cab driver, who was initially attacked, managed to get inside his car and speed away,” said Debnath.

The assault continued on Debnath, his friend and the driver for some time before some other cars stopped at the spot forcing the accused to leave. “They were speaking in Hindi and told us that we should be thankful that they spared our lives. I could only memorise the last three digits of the car’s registration number,” said Pradyut Das, the Uber driver.

Belal Uddin, the app-cab driver who was first attacked, said he had moved past the “black car” without even realizing that he had overtaken it. “I was heading to Tollygunge with a passenger from airport. The men in black car suddenly entered the VIP Road from Keshtopur and my car just crossed it. But that had possibly angered them and they stopped my car and started beating me up. When the other driver and its passengers tried to save me they started beating them up. I had to leave because my passenger insisted me to do so,” he said, adding that he is ready to testify before police.

Police have started a case of assault and kidnapping with intention to murder.