Auto driver pelts stone at BEST bus, injures conductor, passenger

An auto driver has been booked for throwing a stone at a BEST bus in Mumbai, injuring a passenger and conductor. Police are trying to locate the driver.

MUMBAI: An unidentified autorickshaw driver has been booked for allegedly throwing a stone on the windshield of a BEST bus, injuring a passenger and its conductor on Tuesday, according to Jogeshwari police.

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According to Vaibhav Tatkare, 34, conductor, the auto driver tried to justify his action claiming the bus had grazed his three-wheeler while overtaking him on the Western Express Highway near Ismail Yusuf College and that he had been following the bus after that.

Police officers said that the passenger, Swapnil Chowdhary, and Tatkare were treated for wounds on their face and back and discharged. The police have booked the auto driver and are trying to trace him with the help of details of the autorickshaw.

The police said that the bus, plying on route no. 72, had left from Bhayandar and was going towards Sion Bus Depot when the incident took place.

Tatkare told the police that at 1.15pm when they reached Ismail Yusuf College bus stop, an autorickshaw intercepted the bus. The auto driver got off his vehicle, went behind the bus and threw a rock on the rear windshield breaking it.

Tatkare said that the rock and the shards of glass hit a passenger sitting in the back seat and he himself was injured as he was sitting at the back of the bus.

“As the passenger began to bleed, I got off the bus and confronted the auto driver. He told me that the bus had grazed his auto while overtaking him a few kilometers before,” said Tatkare.

Tatakre said that when he talked about taking the auto driver to a police station, he fled. “I then dialled 100 after which police officers arrived and took the injured passenger to a trauma care centre in Jogeshwari,” said Tatkare.