Mumbai: Four IAF officers thrashed with rods, stones over parking in Vile Parle East, 10 held

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Four officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were thrashed allegedly by a group of 12 people who were requested to remove their vehicles parked in front of a hotel gate near the domestic airport in Vile Parle East. Police have arrested 10 accused, while two are absconding.

The IAF squadron leaders - Prathmesh Mangesh Lonkar, 28, Aditya Rajkumar Sharma, 31, Ravi Shekhar, 30, and Jaysingh Brad - sustained injuries and were given treatment at Cooper hospital. All the accused are residents of Ambewadi at Nehru Road in Vile Parle East.

The IAF officers, deployed at Gorakhpur Air Force Station in Uttar Pradesh, were on their way to Jamnagar Air Force station in Gujarat. They had booked their flights from Gorakhpur to Jamnagar, and had a stopover in Mumbai. They were staying at Hotel Airlink outside which they were attacked on June 19.

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Police said the alleged attack took place at 2 am outside Hotel Airlink, when the officers returned after having dinner in Bandra, said Sub-Inspector Chintamani More of Vile Parle police station. They arrived in a taxi and their way inside the hotel was blocked by a car parked right in front of the gate, said More, adding that the vehicle belonged to one of the accused, Aniruddha Harkishan Nair.

"One of the officers requested the accused to remove his car, but he started arguing with them. He said he was a local resident, and asked how they dared to ask him to remove the car. He then called three people to the spot, and the four accused started abusing and beating the IAF officers. They called more friends and in moments a group of 12 people had gathered and were hitting the officers with steel rods and stones. The hotel staff managed to rescue the officers who sustained serious injuries," said More. The officers are all residents of Kolhapur and they flew to Jamnagar a day after the incident.

"We took the help of CCTV cameras of the hotel and identified the accused and arrested 10 of them. We have booked them under Sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 141 (unlawful assembly), 143 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 144 (joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence commit) of the IPC. All are in police custody," More added.

The arrested accused have been identified as Nair, 29, Aniket Dhuri, 29, Siddhesh Pawar, 26, Divyang Waghela, 29, Tushar Dhuri, 31, Subham Pardeshi, 20, Amit Mali, 41, Hiren Waghela, 36, Abhishek Pardeshi, 30, Rajesh Waigankar, 21.