Mumbai: Enraged over relative's 'insult', youth assaults traffic cop

Vinayak Shevale (left) assaulted traffic constable Deepak Nikale on Friday

Vinayak Shevale (left) assaulted traffic constable Deepak Nikale on Friday

Less than a year after traffic constable Vilas Shinde was killed by an enraged biker, a traffic constable in Ghatkopar West was attacked on Friday evening while enforcing road rules.

Deepak Nikale (41), a constable from the Ghatkopar traffic division, was on Ghatkopar Link Road, below Saint Tukaram bridge, in Ghatkopar West when he spotted a man on a Royal Enfield trying to enter a no-entry lane. He pulled the biker over, reprimanded him and let him go.

But the biker's brother, Ghatkopar resident Vinayak Shevale (24), who was nearby, saw the admonishment, marched over to the constable and threatened him. An enraged Shevale, during the spat, picked up a loose paver block and smashed it on Nikale's head.

mid-day's report on August 24 on the attack on traffic constable Vilas Shinde

The constable, who had lost consciousness, was then rushed to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, where he had to get eight to nine stitches in the head. As of late evening, a CT scan was yet to be performed.

Nikale told mid-day at the hospital that the assault came out of the blue. "I was standing at my spot when this man began an argument. Within no time, he picked up a paver block and hit me. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital."

The Ghatkopar police booked Shelvale under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 333 (voluntarily causes grievous hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, and arrested him.

Quick recall
As per the traffic police chief's diktat, cops had been posted at petrol pumps across the city last August to collect data of all vehicles and motorists. Constable Vilas Shinde was posted at one such petrol pump in Khar on August 23. He asked for the details of a biker, which resulted in a heated argument between them. The biker then picked up a wooden staff at the petrol pump, hit Shinde on the head and fled. The constable died of his injuries a week later.