RPF constable held for sodomising cabbie

Mumbai: The Mumbai police has arrested a Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel for extorting from a cab driver and sodomising him at an isolated spot in south Mumbai late on Sunday. The accused cop intercepted the cabbie on P D’Mello road near CSMT terminus and demanded that he take him to the prostitution den at Grant Road, refusal to which resulted in the incident, MRA Marg police said.

The arrested accused was identified as Amit Dhankad (29), who is attached with the RPF headquarter at CSMT. The officials said that it is being probed if Dhankad knew the driver and was there any background to the fateful incident that took place on Sunday night.

The preliminary probe revealed that Dhankad was drunk at the time of the incident. The accused first assaulted the cab driver with sticks and empty beer bottles and later sodomised him and robbed him of Rs 850 cash and his mobile phone. Dhankad also demanded another Rs 2,000 if the victim wanted to be freed. The driver resisted and succeeded in escaping from there and went to the MRA Marg police station to lodge a complaint.

“Dhankad demanded that he be dropped at Grant Road, however since the driver had already picked up a passenger, he refused to do so. This angered Dhankad and he ended up brawling with the cab driver and later dragged him to an isolated spot,” said a police officer.

Soon after the case was registered, a team of the MRA Marg police apprehended Dhankad from RPF barracks near Carnac Bunder. The officials have registered a case under sections 377 (unnatural sex), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) under the Indian Penal Code. Dhankad has been remanded to judicial custody till January 20.