The car owner, Ajit Shetty, a cousin of film star Suniel Shetty, and his driver, Chandranarayan Mishra, were detained by the N M Joshi Marg police after a patrol vehicle spotted them hitting the BEST driver.The owner of a Mercedez Benz car and his driver were arrested on Saturday afternoon after they thrashed a BEST bus driver unconscious following a collision.The BEST driver, Rajkumar Shinde, 36, has been admitted to the emergency medical ward of Nair Hospital with injuries to his right shoulder, chest and abdomen. The car owner, Ajit Shetty, a cousin of film star Suniel Shetty, and his driver, Chandranarayan Mishra, were detained by the N M Joshi Marg police after a patrol vehicle spotted them hitting the BEST driver.Shetty, however, has denied that he or his driver hit Shinde. He has claimed that some bystanders pulled him down from the driver’s cabin after the mishap and took him to the police station.However, the picture on page 1, clicked by a witness to the incident, tells another tale. It shows Shinde sprawled motionless in a police beat vehicle with injuries to his chest and head visible.The N M Joshi Marg police late in the evening registered a case against Shetty and his driver for assaulting a public servant. “A case has been booked under Section 353 for assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone III, Vinayak Deshmukh said.The incident took place near Ambika Mills on Dr E Moses Road at 12:45 pm when the bus operating on route no. 351 from Tata Power, Chembur to Mumbai Central collided with the Merc and dragged it some distance.Shetty was seated in the rear of the car with two women employees of R House, a furniture and lifestyle store.As the bus came to a halt, Shetty and his driver allegedly pulled Shinde down from the bus and thrashed him.A police beat vehicle that was passing by saw the commotion and stopped to check. They found Shinde lying unconscious and rushed him to Nair Hospital. Shetty and his driver were detained.Doctors who attended to Shinde said he has been kept under observation. “He has blunt injuries to his right shoulder, chest and abdomen,” a doctor said.In a statement issued in the evening, Shetty said he or his driver did not hit Shinde. “We just wanted him to accompany us to the police station so that we would be able to claim insurance for the damage to the car. When my driver asked him to get out of the bus, he locked himself in the driver’s cabin,” he said.The BEST deputy PRO Virender Bagul, however, refuted Shetty’s claim and said the police patrol team that took Shinde to hospital were a witness to the assault. “When the cops reached the spot, Shinde had lost consciousness,” he said.At the time of filing this report, a team of N M Joshi Marg police was recording Shinde’s statement in the hospital.