Mumbai cops investigate cowhide bag case

MUMBAI: The Amboli Police are investigating a complaint against an auto rickshaw driver and two men for intimidating a passenger on the suspicion that he was carrying a bag made of cowhide.

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The police have named all three people in the complaint.

Barun Kashyap, a city resident who posted the incident to his Facebook account, said trouble began when he hailed an auto to work at 11:30 am on August 19. The police said the driver began a conversation, asking Kashyap about the bag. He alleged the bag was made of cowhide, though Kashyap explained it was made from camel hide.

The belligerent driver probed further, asking him where he hailed from. When Kashyap told him he was from Assam, the driver retorted, “Is it next to Bangladesh?”

He further claimed that despite the ban on cow slaughter in Maharashtra, it was encouraged in Mumbai.

The driver then insisted the bag smelled of cow’s skin. Kashyap said that since it had got wet, the bag was emitting a peculiar odour.

Things turned scary, Kashyap claimed in his Facebook post, when the driver took a detour to a temple and stopped there.

Here he called out to two men and a discussion ensued in Marathi, a language Kashyap cannot understand. One of the men also checked Kashyap’s bag without permission.

Kahyap was then asked his full name. After some tense moments, the driver took Kashyap back towards his destination — a production house where he works as a creative head, but Kashyap got off at a signal. The rickshaw driver allegedly said to Kashyap: “Ab bach gaye ho agli baar nahi bachoge (you have escaped this time, next time you won’t).”

A day after the incident, Kashyap approached the DN Nagar police on the advice of his colleagues.

A non-cognisable offence was registered and the complaint was transferred to the Amboli police as the incident occurred in their jurisdiction.

Senior police inspector Bharat Gaikwad of Amboli police station confirmed that the complaint had been registered for intentional insult and criminal intimidation under section 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.

“The two had a quarrel. We are probing to see if cognisance can be taken,” Gaikwad said.

Kashyap, who had noted the last four digits of the auto registration number, provided the details to police.