Victim Barkat Ali Khan was attacked by five men who boarded his taxi at Dadar station and fled with his cab after assaulting him near Kalwa. Pic/ Suresh KK

In his complaint to the police, Khan, who resides with his mother and is the lone breadwinner for the family, said he had purchased the car to earn a living. He had taken a loan for the same, and was paying a monthly EMI of Rs 10,000. “On Friday, at 12.30 am, I was with my uncle at Dadar railway station, waiting for passengers. Five people came and first asked my uncle to take them to Kalwa. My uncle refused but I agreed to take them in my cab. This has been the biggest mistake of my life. I could have been killed,” Khan told SUNDAY MiD DAY.

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He recalled that as the taxi crossed Thane toll naka, one of the five men asked him to stop the taxi as he wanted to answer nature’s call. But as soon as Khan stopped, they immediately started hitting him. “They were carrying a rope with which they tied my hands and legs. One of them took all the money from my pocket and my cell phone. One of them then took a huge stone and tried to hit me on my head. I put both my hands in between and the stone hit my right hand, breaking it,” he said.

All the five then escaped with Khan’s car. The youth somehow managed to break free and walked till the toll booth. “Cops at the booth opened the ropes and took me to the police station. I informed my mother and soon, my relatives reached Kalwa police station. I was given treatment at a civil hospital there.”

However, in a late twist to the case, the Kalwa police transferred the case to Matunga police station. When Khan reached Matunga, however, the cops there refused to accept the case as the place of crime was Kalwa. Finally after he sought help from this paper and SMD spoke to the cops at Kalwa, they agreed to take up the case. Senior police inspector Raghvendra Thakur of Matunga police station said, “We have sent back the case to Kalwa as it occurred in Kalwa. The victim was unnecessarily harassed.” Police inspector Malekar from Kalwa police station said, “It was our mistake. We will investigate the matter and arrest all the accused.”