Mumbai: Youth chops off vendor’s fingers over cloth quality

The Khar police have arrested a man who attacked a vendor near his shop at Linking Road in Bandra West after a fight over the quality of clothes. The accused and his friends attacked the vendor with a sickle, and the latter ended up with two chopped fingers.

Constable Kiran Rajput from the Bandra Traffic division caught Yavar Latif Asif Ali, 21, riding a scooter without number plates and stopped him, on October 26. Yavar tried to flee, but Kiran nabbed him and took him to the chowki. At the chowki, Yavar called his friend Mohseen Mansuri, 32, to secure his release.

Meanwhile, Bandra police, who were tracing Yavar's mobile phone in the vendor's case, rushed to the chowki and arrested him as well as Mansuri. While the accused are residents of Kherwadi in Bandra East. The vendor, Aatique Qureshi, 20, lives at Golibar in Santacruz East and has a garment shop at Linking Road in Bandra West.

The attack

According to the police, the accused went to Aatique's shop while shopping at Linking Road, where an argument erupted over the quality of the clothes. The argument turned into a fight, but they went away. However, Yavar returned on October 17 along with Mansuri and four more friends, with the intention to kill him.

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At night, Aatique locked up his shop and hired an auto rickshaw along with his two friends. The accused and his friends followed him, stopped the auto and started thrashing him. They attacked Aatique with a sickle, and as he raised his hand to shield himself, two of his fingers were chopped off. Aatique's friends rushed him to Sion hospital, and a case was filed later at Khar police station.

The Khar cops scanned the CCTV cameras in the area and identified the accused. They found Yavar's address and started surveillance. However, when he did not return home for some days, they asked around in the locality and got his number. They used it to trace him.

All 6 arrested

A police officer said, "We have registered the FIR and arrested all four accused for allegedly attacking and chopping off victim's two fingers." The other accused are Bandra residents Umar Qureshi, 20, and Ali Riyaz Qureshi, 19, and Santacruz residents Vishal Mahato, 19, and Swami Aadesh Khandare, 20.

17 October
Day the accused attacked the vendor