Mumbai: Auto burnt outside Andheri RTO six years old

The auto rickshaw that was burnt outside the Andheri RTO on Thursday, after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's fire spewing speech, is an old one.

On March 9, Thackeray in his speech, brought back the Marathi manoos issue, and stated that the new auto rickshaws bought by winners of the lottery meant for auto rickshaw permits, should be burnt down.

However, the auto that was burnt was six-years-old. The auto rickshaw was registered in the name of one Sukhram B Rajbhar on 30 August, 2010.

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The auto rickshaw was set ablaze just outside the Andheri RTO premises

A day after Thackeray's speech, at around 10.45 pm, the auto rickshaw was set ablaze, allegedly by five people, right outside the Andheri RTO premises. Allahudin Mohammad Badgure, the driver of the auto rickshaw, MH-02-VA-3528, told mid-day, "At around 10.45 pm I was sitting inside the RTO compound and had parked my vehicle on the road. All of a sudden I saw it on fire and came running. A police complaint has been made as well and so I don't want to speak more on this."

Normally rickshaws are parked outside the compound on both sides of the two-lane road along with other vehicles, even those that have been detained. These include long buses and overloaded trucks.

There are CCTVs installed on the building and bulbs fitted on the exterior walls. But sources said that neither the lamps on the building are switched on at night after the office hours, nor are there any street lights on the entire road.

"At night there are a lot of problems as there are no streetlights. There is hardly any space to park vehicles inside the premises," said an RTO official. The road where the RTO is, connects the Link Road to another road that leads to Kokilaben Ambani hospital.

"The vehicle got burnt outside the RTO premises and it is the owner's responsibility. We do not allow parking of vehicles except official vehicles," said M Jadhav, RTO (Andheri). Earlier the RTO ground used to be a parking lot for auto rickshaws, now it has become a dump yard.

"The driver was afraid to speak but we have registered a case and are investigating the matter," said a police officer from Amboli police station.