mumbai

Updated: Oct 26, 2017 00:19 IST

Occupying a window seat in a Churchgate-bound local at 7.40 am proved costly for a 62-year-old heart patient, who was assaulted by four men after he refused to get up. Police arrested three members of the group on Wednesday, while the fourth is yet to be traced.

The man, Shekharan Balan, 62, is a Vasai resident. He was heading to Mumbai Central on October 13 to be treated for a leg injury.

“Braving the morning rush and getting into a Churchgate-bound train is next to impossible, so I usually go from Vasai to Virar in a near empty train, which then gets converted into a Churchgate local. I sat in the second class coach, when Laxman Purba Singh, 39, Chandan Ram Madan Giri, 33, Ranjit Mishra, 42, and an unidentified commuter told me to vacate my seat, saying they were ‘regulars’,” said Balan.

Balan said he told the gang he was going to Haji Ali for treatment, but they refused to listen. “I said I had undergone angioplasties in 2010 and 2013, but they insisted on me vacating the seat. They punched and verbally abused me till Naigaon station, where I alighted. I asked the Vasai government railway police (GRP) to file a complaint,” said Balan.

Balan said he was told to return after a few days as Diwali vacations were ongoing and police were deployed on bandobast duty. “The Vasai GRP called me on October 24. They noted my complaint. On Wednesday, two officers and I went to the Virar station and entered the same coach. I identified the accused and the officers arrested them,” said Balan.

Senior police inspector Rajendra Bhonsale, Vasai GRP, said the accused were charged under section 107 (security for keeping the peace in other cases) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.

“They will be produced before the assistant commissioner of police, Bandra GRP. They will have to give us a bond saying they will not harass Balan for the next six months. They will have to come to the Bandra station every month and sign a logbook. We have reason to believe that the fourth person is a government employee and are on the hunt for him,” added Bhonsale.