A car being set on fire would normally be alarming, but when CCTV captures footage of the miscreants arriving in what looks like a white Mercedes ML SUV, and casually setting fire to the car, it becomes more unsettling. The CCTV footage shows the SUV pull in next to a Volkswagen Vento belonging to Rohit Mehra, who was visiting friends in Mumbai.
A man is seen stepping out of the SUV, at 3:37 am, walking up to the silver-coloured Volkswagen Vento with what look like jerry cans in his hand and setting it on fire. The whole act took less than a minute and the miscreants quickly flee in the SUV as soon as the car is ablaze. Mehra and others rushed to the car thinking it had accidentally caught fire, but only later realised that it was an act of arson.
An FIR has been filed at the Saki Naka police station and investigation is still underway.
Mehra told The Quint that his car was parked in a guest parking spot and he does not recall having any road rage incident earlier in the day. He says there is usually another silver Volkswagen Vento parked in the same spot every day. Police have questioned the owner of that car as well, but haven’t found any clues yet. CCTV footage from other cameras is being examined, but the registration number of the Mercedes SUV has not been recovered yet.
Mehra told The Quint that the society he was visiting is a gated community that has a guard at the gate. However, the gates were left open and the guard was asleep when the incident took place. A second CCTV camera in the society was not functioning that night. Mehra and other neighbours rushed to the car and managed to douse the flames within 10 minutes.
Police are tracking the route that the Mercedes SUV took after the incident to get more leads.
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