Father-son duo thrash Congress leader's son

Police have registered an attempt to murder case against a father-son duo after they assaulted the teenaged son of a prominent Congress leader from Thane on Monday. Police said the accused Vikas and Atul Chothani allegedly attacked 18-year-old Pranay Phatak, son of Ravindra Phatak who is the chairman of Thane Municipal Corporation's Standing Committee, with bamboos because theu00a0victim was meeting the accused's daughter.

Pranay Pathaku00a0

Police said the father Atul, after the attack, even trailed Pranay in his car and rammed the victim's car while he was being rushed to the hospital. Pranay, who resides in Thane, sustained 13 stitches to his forehead in the vicious beating and is undergoing treatment at Jupiter hospital in Thane (W).

According to the police, Vikas, the girl's brother, had warned Pranay several times earlier, asking him to stay away from his sister. "On Monday, the girl had called Pranay to meet her at Kalidas Natya Gruh in Mulund (West). When Pranay arrived at the location in his Audi car, Vikas also turned up at the spot and asked his sister to accompany him home. He then asked Pranay to meet him at Cypress locality in Mulund.

After dropping his sister, Vikas, along with two other unidentified persons, came to Cypress, and allegedly hit Pranay with a bamboo on his head, legs and hands," said a police officer from Mulund police station. After the beating, Pranay's friends, who had accompanied him to the spot, were rushing him to his residence at Raheja Gardens, Teen Haath Naka, when the girl's father driving a Maruti Swift dashed the Audi car they were travelling in, said police.

"We have registered an attempt to murder case, and are yet to arrest the accused," said Vasant Tajane, assistant commissioner of police of Mulund division. Ravindra Phatak, a close aide of Industries minister Narayan Rane, said, "We have followed all legal procedures and will wait for the law to take its own course."