Mumbai man beaten to death in road rage incident

Mumbai: A 63-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death in a road rage incident under the Dadar TT Circle in central Mumbai on Monday. The deceased, identified as Naresh alias Narottam Waghela, was a retired BMC employee and used to live with his family in Gautam Nagar, Dadar.The Matunga police have arrested the owner of the car, Shanawaz Shaikh, and his driver, Sahil Ghadge, on charges of murder.According to the police, Savita Waghela, the wife of the deceased, Naresh alias Narottam Bala Vaghela, on Monday lodged a complaint alleging that her husband was assaulted on the night of April 12 after he objected to a car being parked near their makeshift dwelling under the Dadar TT Bridge.Savita told police that she and her husband had been living under the Dadar flyover bridge for the past few days. At around 9:30 pm, a Pune–Mumbai-bound Ertiga was parked on the road near their spot. When the couple requested the driver not to park there, an argument broke out. The driver, Sahil Ghadge, allegedly summoned the car owner, Shaikh, following which the duo assaulted her husband with fists and kicks.The complaint states that the assailants dragged the victim across the road near a bus stop opposite the Bata showroom and continued the assault. They allegedly pinned him to the ground and struck him repeatedly. When Waghela intervened, she found her husband unresponsive.With the help of a passerby, she rushed him to King Edward Memorial Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.Seeing this, the two accused got scared and fled the scene after realizing the severity of the assault. In her statement, the complainant gave the suspects' descriptions, identifying one as the driver of the vehicle and the other as his accomplice. Based on the CCTV footage as well as the eyewitness accounts, police arrested the two persons. ``Prima facie it appears that the deceased was drunk and weak and died due to the alleged assault. We have arrested the two persons based on the deceased's wife's complaint, but have sought opinion from the doctors to understand the actual cause of death.'' said an official.