QMumbai: Uber Driver Assaulted; City Braces For Maratha Rally
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1. Uber Driver Assaulted By Five Passengers
A 26-year-old Uber driver was assaulted by five passengers recently after he asked them to not smoke inside the AC car, which they had hailed from Lower Parel.
The agitated passengers got into an altercation with the driver at Elphinstone Bridge, strangulated him with the seat belt, before attempting to throw him off the flyover.
The driver, identified as Altaf Shaikh, is a resident of Thane. The incident took place on August 4, when Shaikh dropped a passenger at Mahalaxmi and took up another trip to pick up passengers from Lower Parel, who wanted to go to Yari Road in Andheri.
However, when the car was making its way through the heavy crowd over the Elphinstone Bridge, two of the five passengers lit a cigarette. Sheikh asked them not to smoke inside the AC car, which apparently offended them.
One of the five passengers, seated next to Shaikh on the front seat, asked him to stop the car and threatened to cancel the trip.
A police officer from Dadar police station, where a case has been registered, said, “The four who were seated behind caught hold of Shaikh’s seat belt and strangulated him.”
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Mumbai Braces For Huge Maratha Stir
The state government, police, railways, and municipal corporation worked frantically on Tuesday to make arrangements for a massive Maratha protest planned in Mumbai on Wednesday, as thousands of community members began trooping into the city.
An estimated 6 lakh people from across Maharashtra are expected to join the protest, a silent march from Byculla zoo to Azad Maidan, prompting authorities to urge citizens to avoid nonessential travel. Severe traffic snarl-ups are likely in south Mumbai, where some important routes and all schools will be shut on Wednesday.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
3. Celebrity Planner Stalked, Stranger Follows Her Home At 2 AM
As Chandigarh's Varnika Kundu steels herself for an uphill battle against stalker Vikas Barala and a misogynistic system, an Andheri-based wedding planner has been through a disturbingly similar ordeal. Aditi Kapoor, 38, who has planned Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza's wedding, was tailgated to her home in Amboli at 2 am on Monday by a stranger.
The man even had the audacity to ring her doorbell and try to strike up a conversation with her, fearing neither the CCTV cameras around nor the security guard.
Revealing her horrifying experience, Kapoor told mid-day that she went out on Sunday night with her two children and sister in a car, and returned home around 2 am. "I was tucking my children into bed when the doorbell rang. I wondered who could be paying a visit that late in the night, opened the door and found a man who looked drunk standing at my doorstep."
(Source: Mid-day)
4. Singhania Says Son Has Reduced Him To Hand-to-Mouth Life
One of the country’s richest men, who spent more than two decades dressing up the Indian male, is now broke, and by his own admission is living a “hand-to-mouth” existence. And he blames only one person for this – his son.
Dr Vijaypat Singhania, who built Raymond Ltd into one of the largest apparel brands in the country before handing over the business to his son Gautam, is today a bitter man residing in a rented row house in south Mumbai’s upscale Grand Paradi society.
Two days after Mumbai Mirror reported that he had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking possession of a duplex in the redeveloped 36-storey JK House on Malabar Hill, his lawyer told the court on Wednesday that the retired tycoon was struggling financially.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
5. No Non-Veg Move Will Help AI Save Rs 20 Cr
National carrier Air India’s decision to not provide non-vegetarian meals to economy class passengers on domestic routes will help it save Rs 20 crore annually, the government has said.
The Air India last month decided to go allveg in economy class on domestic routes, and the airline’s chairman and managing director Ashwini Lohani said the national carrier was likely to take more such measures to cut costs.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
6. Dead Body Pops Out Of Ground, Causes Panic In Sakinaka
A dead body popping out of the ground led to much panic in Sakinaka, Andheri East, late on Sunday evening. While the body is yet to be identified, it appears that rising from the dead will bring the victim justice, as cops have filed a murder case.
Passers-by at Kharani Dongar noticed two legs sticking out from the ground — one of the legs was just bone. After the ensuing panic died down, the locals called the police, who dug out the body, which was semi-decomposed.
(Source: Mid-day)
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