An Ola driver was allegedly attacked and dragged on the bonnet of a car for nearly two kilometres in Navi Mumbai's Nerul, after an argument over overtaking spiralled into a violent road rage incident late Saturday night.
The confrontation broke out on Palm Beach Road between the Ola driver, identified as Praveen Pandey, and an unidentified motorist. According to accounts of the incident, the car driver allegedly struck Pandey on the head with an iron rod during the altercation, leaving him injured and bleeding.
As the attacker attempted to flee the scene, Pandey tried to block the vehicle from moving. Instead of stopping, the driver allegedly accelerated, causing Pandey to be thrown onto the bonnet of the moving car. He was then allegedly dragged for close to two kilometres, clinging to the windshield wipers to avoid falling off the speeding vehicle.
Amid the ordeal, Pandey managed to record a video of himself on the bonnet, in which he can be heard screaming for help, his face visibly covered in blood. In the video, he is heard repeatedly saying that the occupants of the car were not letting him go, even as he pleaded for the vehicle to stop.
Witnesses said that despite Pandey's cries, the driver did not halt the car and continued driving before eventually dropping him by the roadside and fleeing the scene.
Following the incident, Pandey approached the Nerul police station to file a complaint.
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However, police reportedly attempted to broker a compromise between the two parties instead of registering a formal case, according to accounts of the incident reported by PTI.
It was only after these settlement efforts failed that police registered a case, doing so in the early hours of Sunday, around 4.30 a.m., a delay that has raised questions over the handling of the complaint by local authorities.
Further details on the identity of the accused driver and the status of the police investigation are awaited.
The incident has once again drawn attention to the safety risks faced by app-based cab drivers operating late at night in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
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