BHIWANDI: A 27-year-old man working with a multinational company was beaten up by six auto rickshaw drivers here on Tuesday morning for taking lift from a private car and not availing of an auto rickshaw.

The incident took place around 8am on the Bhiwandi bypass auto stand situated on Kalyan- Bhiwandi road, when the victim Anup Shukla, who works with a Worli-based private company was on his way to Thane to board his train to go to office. “I was on my way to office as usual and was waiting near the auto stand for a bus to Thane. The bus did not stop at the stand and I was getting late when a private car owner, seeing my predicament, stopped his car and offered me a lift,” said Shukla when contacted.

He had barely stepped into the car when Shukla was accosted by a group of six auto rickshaw drivers who were waiting for passengers at the stand.

“They stopped the car, hauled me out and started abusing me for taking the lift while they were waiting for passengers. While five of them of them held me, the sixth one started bashing me up,”said a rattled Shukla, adding that he sustained head injuries in the process. Having manhandled him in this way, the drivers let him go and he managed to call his relatives who took him to the Thane civil hospital where he was admitted.

Shukla also claimed that the local Kongaon police station had initially refused to file an FIR and gave in only when the Joint Commissioner of Police at Thane, V V Laxminarayan, was approached and he ordered local police to file the FIR and investigate matter. Police is yet to make any headway in the case.