While attacking the two brothers, slum dwellers let the culprit escape.
A good Samaritan act landed two brothers in a hospital in Malad on Sunday.
In their attempt to catch a thief who had entered their neighbour’s house at Bhadran Nagar in Malad (W), they were assaulted by a crowd of slum dwellers who allegedly helped the thief escape.
Around 10.30am, Uday Shah, 37, and Pinank, 31, were sleeping when they were woken by their neighbour’s shout that a thief was in her house. They rushed outside to see the thief fleeing from the neighbouring house. The shirtless thief had applied oil all over his body and so that no one could get hold of him.
Uday’s wife Sonal said: “The two started chasing the thief. He ran along the railway tracks and then entered a slum area near the tracks. He said something to a group of people gathered at the slum.”
When the duo saw what had happened, they asked the crowd to hand over the accused. “Instead of handing him over, the crowd helped the thief escape and then started fighting with the two. A slum resident claimed that the man was not a thief, but his relative,” said Sonal, adding that people from that slum keep entering their society to steal.
The argument between the brothers and the crowd of slum dwellers turned ugly and the brothers were no match for more than 50 people who had surrounded them. They started beating up the two. “They assaulted them for about 10 minutes with sticks. While my husband suffered fractures and injuries near the eye, his brother suffered head injuries. Both are in hospital,” added Sonal. While Uday is a salesman in a pharmacy, Pinank is a software engineer.
The police have registered a case of assault and provoking breach of peace, and have booked Karpan Bachubai, 39, for assaulting the duo. The police are on the hunt for more people.
“Bachubai has also filed a complaint against the brothers claiming they mistook his relative for a thief. We are probing the matter,” said a police officer of Malad police.
1) Brothers Uday, 37, and Pinank Shah, 31, were sleeping in their Malad house when they heard their neighbour scream ‘thief’. The two see the thief escape from the neighbour’s house
2) The duo chases the thief who crosses the railway tracks and enters a slum. The thief was seen talking to the locals there
3) The brothers follow him to the slum. The locals help the thief escape and stop the brothers from chasing him. A fight breaks out and both of them are beaten by the crowd
4) Both brothers are admitted to a hospital for multiple injuries.
One of the assaulters is arrested by the Malad police
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