A 52-year-old police officer sustained head injuries after being attacked with a stick by a man obstructing traffic in the Malad area of Mumbai in Maharashtra, news agency PTI reported citing officials on Wednesday.
The incident took place on Tuesday when Assistant Sub-Inspector Manik Sawant was patrolling the Kachpada locality in Malad alongside his colleagues in a police van.
What happened?
ASI Sawant noticed a traffic jam and got out to clear the road on Tuesday, after which he saw a man deliberately blocking vehicles, according to an official.
The officer then approached the man, pulled him aside, and asked him to leave the spot. Enraged, the man threatened to kill the officer, picked up a stick, and struck Sawant on the head. The blow caused Sawant to lose consciousness and fall, the official said.
“The accused fled the scene, leaving the stick behind. The other two officers in the mobile van quickly rushed Sawant to Tunga Hospital in Malad, where he regained consciousness after treatment,” the official said.
During the investigation, police identified the accused as Arun Harijan, a resident of the Kachpada area.
Based on Sawant’s complaint, a case was filed charging the accused with attempted murder under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS). No arrests have been made, the official added.
Similar incidents
Earlier in October, a viral video from Bengaluru’s Indiranagar showed a woman confronting a traffic police officer near the ESI Hospital junction. Amid a traffic jam, the woman was seen kicking, shouting, and trying to remove the officer’s body camera, while yelling in Hindi that the officers would lose their jobs.
The Bengaluru traffic police department responded to the viral video, confirming that a case had been filed. “A criminal case has been registered in Indiranagar Police Station and the accused has been arrested,” the police wrote on the social media site X.
In a separate incident, a resident of Bihar assaulted an on-duty traffic police sub-inspector in February after his nephew was issued a challan and had his bike confiscated in Punjab’s Ludhiana.
The division number 1 police have filed an FIR against the accused and arrested him. The accused has been identified as Vinod Kumar Rai from Bihar residing in New Madhopuri.
Sub-inspector Sulakhan Singh explained that they had stopped a biker for checking, but he failed to produce the vehicle’s documents and didn’t have a driving license. The sub-inspector issued a challan and impounded the bike. Later the biker called his uncle, who arrived at the scene and began arguing with the officer over the challan issued to his nephew. The accused then assaulted the officer and obstructed his duties.
The officer immediately notified the division number 1 police, who arrived at the location and began an investigation. A case under sections 353, 186, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code has been filed against the accused.