ROAD RAGE: Taxi occupant is killed with paver blocks

Just because he took his time giving change to the cabbie; assaulted by 4 others who were in a tearing hurry to leave

The city on Wednesday witnessed a bizarre incident of road rage with four persons assaulting a 36-year-old craftsman with paver blocks, just because they did not have the patience to wait while an occupant of a taxi paid the cabbie.

The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. The victim, Surendra Singh, a resident of Chembur, had come to Crawford Market for shopping along with two friends - Ram Babu Savita (23) and Brij Singh (24).

After the shopping, they took a taxi. At Kailash Mandir in Chembur, the three minor accused -- aged 17 and 16 -- and their adult accomplice were in a tearing hurry to get into the taxi after the victims had alighted.

While Singh was paying the fare, the four accused, who were sitting in the taxi now, asked the driver to hurry. Singh, however, did not have change and took his time. Meanwhile, the four accused started abusing the victim.

In a fit of rage, the 17 yearold accused picked up a paver block from the road and hit Singh on his head. Soon after, his friends also joined in the assault and hit Singh with paver blocks. They also assaulted Singh’s friend Ram Babu. Their associate Brij was horrified at the turn of events and ran away from the spot.

Later, one of the accused hijacked the taxi and drove away. Singh’s friends called up the police control room and admitted him at Lokmanya Tilak hospital at Sion, where he succumbed to injuries. Surendra and his friends are natives of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and resided at Chembur. The accused and his three friends are residents of Indira Nagar, also in Chembur.

According to Shahaji Umap, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 7), “The four accused have been arrested. The three minors have been sent to the Dongri observation home while the adult accused has been remanded to police custody of four days.

They have been arrested for murder (Section 302), punishment for voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323), intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace (Section 504) and common intention (Section 34) of the Indian Penal Code.