Law breakers batter law keepers
As road rage turns on cops with a vengeance, Mirror looks at the unwarranted attacks that cops have suffered over past months at the hands of traffic violators.
To endure Mumbai’s roads as a motorist is a nightmare, but to bear up with them as a traffic cop is lethal. That’s the lesson learnt from the rash of unprovoked assaults on the police manning Mumbai’s streets over the past few months.
They are cussed at, screamed down, beaten up, run over — and killed, as head constable Vilas Shinde was. In an outrageous incident on August 23, the kin of a juvenile, who had rode into a petrol pump in Khar without a helmet, hit the cop with a wooden shaft. Shinde died in hospital days later.
VAISHALI PHADALE, 26 — DEEPMALA SONAWANE, 30
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: SHIVAJI PARK POLICE STATION
Date of attack: SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Incident: Police constables Vaishali Phadale and her colleague Deepmala Sonawane, 30, were on duty near the Meenatai Thackeray statue at Shivaji Park in Dadar when they found a woman lying on the road in an intoxicated state: she was only partly conscious, they recalled.
They decided to help her. Phadale went to fetch a bottle of water, and while she was returning, a speeding Activa scooter scraped past her, bruising her. Phadale shouted for her the rider to stop, who had two pillion passengers behind her; she was not wearing a helmet. The rider stopped and wen questioned about her rash driving, began arguing with Phadale. “She just wouldn’t listen to us,” Phadale said. When the policewomen asked for her licence and vehicle documents, the aggressor started abusing them. “When my colleague Sonawane tried to stop her while she was trying to flee, the accused woman tried to run her over, and managed to flee from the spot,” said Phadale.
A passerby witnessed the incident and messaged the police commissioner, who asked senior officers to intervene. A police team and a traffic constable traced the offender’s residence to Mahim. She was identified as Tejashree Akre and was penalised for driving rashly, without a helmet, and deterring a public servant from performing their duty.
NAUSHEEN SHAIKH, 39
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE
Date of attack: AUGUST 5, 2016
Incident: Nausheen Shaikh and four of her colleagues were deployed to evict illegal hawkers from near the police station when her team was overpowered by over 40 hawkers. “The situation spun out of control when the hawkers started pelting stones at us,” Shaikh said.
“We were only doing our duty after getting complaints about traffic jams due to the hawking.” As the mob surrounded the police officials, the public came to their rescue.
Among all the police officials, Shaikh sustained the most injuries. “I spent two weeks running from one hospital to another for severe internal injuries on my right hand. I couldn’t do most routine chores normally,” she said.
GANPAT CHAVAN, 53
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: SHIVAJI PARK POLICE STATION
Date of attack: MAY 10, 2016
Incident: Chavan was on night duty at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar when he saw a scuffle break out between some taxi drivers and bikers across the road, around 2:30 am. “The youths, who were in an inebriated condition, began to hurl abuses at me. One of them hit me on my head with a bamboo stick lying around. I fell to the ground and they rained blows on me, kicking me before speeding off,” Chavan recalled. What is sadder, he says, was that nobody — passersby as well as taxi drivers standing nearby — came to help him.
Chavan got seven sutures near his eye and had trouble seeing clearly at first. “I was hospitalised for 25 days,” he said. But the ruffians who attacked him got out on bail within eight.
MAHADEO KUMBHAR, 42
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: TRAFFIC POLICE
Date of attack: SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
Incident: Kumbhar was admitted to the intensive care unit after he was knocked down by a biker who had jumped a signal at Dockyard Road. Last Tuesday, he was moved to the general ward of a hospital in Mulund, and is currently being treated there.
His friend Yunus Khan said the constable tried to stop the biker as he was driving right through a red light. “He tried to stop the man, who didn’t slow down and rammed the bike straight into him,” Khan said.
The bike collided into Kumbhar’s legs, sending him reeling backwards. He fell and hit his head on the road. The injuries to his head and legs are severe and several.
To endure Mumbai’s roads as a motorist is a nightmare, but to bear up with them as a traffic cop is lethal. That’s the lesson learnt from the rash of unprovoked assaults on the police manning Mumbai’s streets over the past few months.
They are cussed at, screamed down, beaten up, run over — and killed, as head constable Vilas Shinde was. In an outrageous incident on August 23, the kin of a juvenile, who had rode into a petrol pump in Khar without a helmet, hit the cop with a wooden shaft. Shinde died in hospital days later.
The phenomenon of traffic tantrums mutating into crimes against cops — man or woman — deserves a thorough look into the causes of the unwarranted rage driving motorists to turn on the very people deployed to guard their commute. Apart from preventive or punitive measures to be adopted, the cases need to be studied to develop an understanding into the sporadic psychosis now being witnessed on the city’s streets.
VAISHALI PHADALE, 26 — DEEPMALA SONAWANE, 30
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: SHIVAJI PARK POLICE STATION
Date of attack: SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Incident: Police constables Vaishali Phadale and her colleague Deepmala Sonawane, 30, were on duty near the Meenatai Thackeray statue at Shivaji Park in Dadar when they found a woman lying on the road in an intoxicated state: she was only partly conscious, they recalled.
They decided to help her. Phadale went to fetch a bottle of water, and while she was returning, a speeding Activa scooter scraped past her, bruising her. Phadale shouted for her the rider to stop, who had two pillion passengers behind her; she was not wearing a helmet. The rider stopped and wen questioned about her rash driving, began arguing with Phadale. “She just wouldn’t listen to us,” Phadale said. When the policewomen asked for her licence and vehicle documents, the aggressor started abusing them. “When my colleague Sonawane tried to stop her while she was trying to flee, the accused woman tried to run her over, and managed to flee from the spot,” said Phadale.
A passerby witnessed the incident and messaged the police commissioner, who asked senior officers to intervene. A police team and a traffic constable traced the offender’s residence to Mahim. She was identified as Tejashree Akre and was penalised for driving rashly, without a helmet, and deterring a public servant from performing their duty.
NAUSHEEN SHAIKH, 39
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE
Date of attack: AUGUST 5, 2016
Incident: Nausheen Shaikh and four of her colleagues were deployed to evict illegal hawkers from near the police station when her team was overpowered by over 40 hawkers. “The situation spun out of control when the hawkers started pelting stones at us,” Shaikh said.
“We were only doing our duty after getting complaints about traffic jams due to the hawking.” As the mob surrounded the police officials, the public came to their rescue.
Among all the police officials, Shaikh sustained the most injuries. “I spent two weeks running from one hospital to another for severe internal injuries on my right hand. I couldn’t do most routine chores normally,” she said.
GANPAT CHAVAN, 53
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: SHIVAJI PARK POLICE STATION
Date of attack: MAY 10, 2016
Incident: Chavan was on night duty at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar when he saw a scuffle break out between some taxi drivers and bikers across the road, around 2:30 am. “The youths, who were in an inebriated condition, began to hurl abuses at me. One of them hit me on my head with a bamboo stick lying around. I fell to the ground and they rained blows on me, kicking me before speeding off,” Chavan recalled. What is sadder, he says, was that nobody — passersby as well as taxi drivers standing nearby — came to help him.
Chavan got seven sutures near his eye and had trouble seeing clearly at first. “I was hospitalised for 25 days,” he said. But the ruffians who attacked him got out on bail within eight.
MAHADEO KUMBHAR, 42
Rank: CONSTABLE
Department: TRAFFIC POLICE
Date of attack: SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
Incident: Kumbhar was admitted to the intensive care unit after he was knocked down by a biker who had jumped a signal at Dockyard Road. Last Tuesday, he was moved to the general ward of a hospital in Mulund, and is currently being treated there.
His friend Yunus Khan said the constable tried to stop the biker as he was driving right through a red light. “He tried to stop the man, who didn’t slow down and rammed the bike straight into him,” Khan said.
The bike collided into Kumbhar’s legs, sending him reeling backwards. He fell and hit his head on the road. The injuries to his head and legs are severe and several.
