Four persons attack cabbie, flee with his car at Dehugaon on Mumbai-Pune highway

PUNE: Four men attacked a 25-year-old driver of a cab aggregator and drove away with his vehicle and a cellphone, collectively worth Rs1.08 lakh, at Dehugaon on Mumbai-Pune highway around 2.45am on Wednesday. The car was later recovered from a village near Talegaon.
The cab driver, Shahrukh Shaikh, of Alandi Road lodged an FIR in this regard on Thursday after undergoing preliminary treatment for head injuries suffered in the attack.
The Dehu Road police on Friday traced the car to Indori village near Talegaon, about 40km from Pune. “Our team rushed to the village and found the cab abandoned along the road. We have launched a search for the suspects,” sub-inspector VN Gaikwad of the Dehu Road police told TOI.
Gaikwad said the incident occurred when Shaikh was returning home via Pune-Mumbai highway after dropping a passenger. “When he reached Dehugaon, he noticed that driver of a white car behind him was honking continuously. “As soon as Shaikh slowed down the speed of his cab, the other car overtook him and blocked his way,” the officer said.
He said four men alighted from the vehicle and started abusing Shaikh. “When Shaikh came out of his car, the suspects started beating him up. One of the suspects then hit Shaikh with some blunt object, following which Shaikh left the cab at the spot and fled. The cab aggregator’s cellphone and Rs 2,000 were inside the cab,” Gaikwad said.
The officer said as Shaikh’s personal cellphone was with him, he contacted a friend of his before arriving at the Dehu Road police station with him. “We sent Shaikh to a hospital and then took his FIR on Thursday,” Gaikwad said.