Mumbai: Banker dies of heart attack after being taken to cops for road rage

A bank employee based in Goregaon died of heart attack while being taken to the police station for allegedly assaulting a truck driver in a road rage incident on Sunday. The deceased had assaulted the truck driver with a beer bottle, after crashing into the truck in an attempt to overtake it.

The incident occurred on Sunday evening at the MTNL junction in Goregaon (West), where Prabhakar Shivajirao Suryavanshi (55), an employee of a bank, was trying to overtake a water tanker being driven by Kailas Gautam, a Ghatkopar resident.

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Suryavanshi, a resident of Motilal Nagar, was in his Zen with his wife and was going home. He tried overtaking the tanker, but crashed the vehicle into the truck. Later, Suryavanshi stopped his vehicle in front of the truck, removed an empty beer bottle from inside his car, and broke it on Gautam's head.

Traffic constables rushed to the spot and immediately informed the Goregaon police of the incident. A bleeding Gautam was rushed to Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon by the police, and the banker was taken to the police station to be arrested.

Shrikant Katkar, police sub-inspector of Goregaon police station, said, "The accused Suryavanshi collapsed in front of the police station gate before we arrested him. We took him to Suvidha Hospital, but he was declared dead." Suryavanshi's wife told the police that her husband had been suffering from high blood pressure for the last three years.

The family said the fear of being arrested and put behind bars might have induced the heart attack. Police said the deceased's wife tried to stop him from assaulting the driver, but he didn't listen and continued to thrash Gautam, who ultimately received five stitches to his head. "We have registered an assault case against Suryavanshi, and also registered an Accidental Death report," Katkar said.