Mumbai: In an incident of road rage, an unidentified motorcyclist assaulted a BEST bus driver with a helmet following an argument about overtaking, at Malad (west) on Saturday. The driver, Abdul Rashid Mulla (44), sustained injury to the hand after the see-through shield cracked, the police said. An FIR has been registered against the motorcyclist, and a manhunt launched for him.
The injured driver has been employed with BEST on contract for the past four years. He drives bus 273 from Malad (Sainath subway) to Malwani (Mhada). Around 6.30 pm, the bus was near Orlem Church when a motorcyclist tried to overtake it from the left. According to Mulla’s statement to the police, there was not enough space for the bike to move ahead, and the rider lost his cool. He told bus driver to halt to allow the bike to move ahead, but the driver told him he could not halt on that stretch.
According to the FIR, the biker started to hurl expletives at the driver. The biker then got into the bus and started to hit the driver with a black helmet, states the FIR. Passengers asked the biker to leave, but he allegedly abused them too. While he was hitting the driver with the helmet, its shield broke and pierced the driver’s right hand, causing it to bleed. The biker left the bus soon after.
The driver informed a BEST bus inspector about the incident and went to Bahasaheb Ambedkar Hospital, Kandivli, for treatment. He provided the motorcycle registration number to officials at Malad police station and gave them a description of the rider. TNN
