Four assault Mumbai senior citizen with heart ailment for refusing to vacate window seat

The Mumbai man was heading to Mumbai Central on October 13 to be treated for a leg injury

Occupying a window seat in a Churchgate-bound local at 7.40 am proved costly for a 62-year-old heart patient, who was assaulted by four men after he refused to get up. Police arrested three members of the group on Wednesday, while the fourth is yet to be traced.

Shekharan Balan, 62, was forced to alight at Naigaon. (HT File)

The man, Shekharan Balan, 62, is a Vasai resident. He was heading to Mumbai Central on October 13 to be treated for a leg injury.

“Braving the morning rush and getting into a Churchgate-bound train is next to impossible, so I usually go from Vasai to Virar in a near empty train, which then gets converted into a Churchgate local. I sat in the second class coach, when Laxman Purba Singh, 39, Chandan Ram Madan Giri, 33, Ranjit Mishra, 42, and an unidentified commuter told me to vacate my seat, saying they were ‘regulars’,” said Balan.

Balan said he told the gang he was going to Haji Ali for treatment, but they refused to listen. “I said I had undergone angioplasties in 2010 and 2013, but they insisted on me vacating the seat. They punched and verbally abused me till Naigaon station, where I alighted. I asked the Vasai government railway police (GRP) to file a complaint,” said Balan.

Senior police inspector Rajendra Bhonsale, Vasai GRP, said the accused were charged under section 107 (security for keeping the peace in other cases) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.

“They will be produced before the assistant commissioner of police, Bandra GRP. They will have to give us a bond saying they will not harass Balan for the next six months. They will have to come to the Bandra station every month and sign a logbook. We have reason to believe that the fourth person is a government employee and are on the hunt for him,” added Bhonsale.