BENGALURU: A 28-year-old auto driver, who advised a fellow auto driver and his friends to stop doing wheelies and stunts, was brutally beaten up near Sarakki signal in JP Nagar in the wee hours of Tuesday.Although the victim, Abhilash N, a resident of Hari Nagar in BDA Layout, was injured, he anaged to escape and approached Jayanagar police station.
On the way to the police station, the attackers followed the victim to prevent him from filing a complaint. When the police issued a division-wide alert to trace the attackers, a police patrol chased them, and their autorickshaw toppled. Among the three, the police have identified only Hyder Ali, 25, the auto driver known to Abhilash. None of the three were in a state to give a statement due to severe injuries, for which they have been admitted to a private hospital.
The police are waiting for them to recover to take them into custody. Abhilash, too, was admitted to a hospital with injuries from being attacked with a dagger and wooden logs.In his complaint, Abhilash said he was ferrying passengers to Uttarahalli at 3 am on Tuesday. While passing Sarakki signal, a speeding autorickshaw almost hit his vehicle as the driver was performing a wheelie. He identified the driver as Ali, and asked him not to perform these stunts.
This angered Ali and his two friends, who started attacking him. The panicking passengers got off Abhilash’s auto and left. “To escape them, I jumped the compound wall of the Metro station and sought the help of a duo riding a bike. I requested them to drop me to the police station,” he said.