Police officer's son gets BEST thrashing

Complaining about the Big Reds can leave you with a black eye.
This is what a 15-year-old collegian learnt after being allegedly assaulted by a group of at least 12 BEST staffers inside the Yari Road depot on Wednesday when he went there to register a complaint about the rash driving of a BEST bus which had dangerously brushed past him. Four BEST employees have been arrested in the case.

According to the police, the incident took place late afternoon on Wednesday when Shaizan Sheikh, a student of Carla College in Yari Road, was on his way home. “Suddenly, and without warning, a BEST bus drove past me at very high speed. I was lucky that it did not hit me,” Shaizan said.

The complainant, in his statement to the police, said that to complain against the bus driver, he went to the bus depot. “The staffers there called me inside a room and thrashed me black and blue. I kept pleading them to stop. It was quite painful,” Shaizan added.

“He suffered a fracture on his hand and punches all over his face and head,” said Shaizan’s father Siraj Sheikh, who works as a police sub-inspector at the Worli division of traffic police.

Relatives added that Shaizan managed to call one of his family members, who rushed to his rescue. Shaizan is recuperating at his home in Yari Road.

The police said that as the news of Shaizan’s confinement and thrashing spread, locals gathered at the bus depot and started arguing with the BEST staff. “The staffers, in spite of being guilty of thrashing a child, shouted back at us,” said Salim Sheikh, a local.

The mob then called up the police, and the accused were summoned to the Versova police station for further investigation. Based on preliminary enquiries, the police registered a case of voluntarily causing grievous injury against the BEST staffers, leading to the arrest of four of them.

When contacted, Sumitra Samant, deputy public relation officer of BEST, said she was unaware of the incident.

This is not the first time BEST staffers have driven and behaved roughshod. A 40-year-old biker was seriously injured in Dadar after being run over by a speeding BEST bus on June 20. K Bhagat, the driver of the bus, was later arrested by the police.
According to the police, the incident occurred near Gopinath Chowk in Dadar when Milind Jadhav, a government employee, was on his way home to Parel.