Pune car driver punches hotel exec in the face for 'drive better' remark

PUNE: A man (57) in a speeding car on Saturday afternoon followed a woman riding a two-wheeler with two children (seven and nine years old), blocked their way and punched her in the face on Baner-Pashan Link Road because she earlier told him to drive the vehicle properly after it splashed mud on them. All this while, his wife egged him on sitting in the four-wheeler.
A bleeding Jerlyn Dsilva (27), marketing and communications manager at Sheraton Grand Pune, shared her ordeal in an Instagram video.

Residents of Baner and nearby areas expressed concern over this road rage incident and other issues like speeding, besides highlighting the lack of CCTV camera coverage.
The man, a retired engineer, and his wife (52) have been detained. "We are deciding on whether to arrest them or serve a notice to cooperate with the investigation," an officer from the Chatushrungi police said.

The investigating officer said an FIR had been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 118 (1) [voluntarily causing hurt], 74 (assault or criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 115 (2) [voluntarily causing hurt to a person], 352 (intentionally insults someone) and 3 (5), and sections 117, 119 and 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act .
A visibly traumatised Dsilva, with blood oozing out of her nose, said in the video that she was on Baner Road with the two children when she encountered a man in a car. He was speeding and allegedly followed her.
"I was trying to take the vehicle through the left side, not wanting to get in his way. This man overspeeds, risking the lives of so many people on the road, and takes a left turn, taking me to the side. This man gets out of the car furiously. He punches me twice and pulls my hair. He didn't care about the kids. I want to ask how safe the city is. Where is this going? I had two kids with me. Anything could have happened. I just want this man to be punished for what he did," said Dsilva.
When TOI contacted Dsilva, she was in the Sassoon General Hospital with the police for her medical checkup. She said in a trembling voice that she was in shock and unable to speak, handing over the call to her friend, Siddhesh S.
"Dsilva lives in Hadapsar. She was going to an eatery in Baner with her neighbour's children aged 7 and 9 on her scooter around 1.30pm, when a rashly driven car splashed mud on them. When she tried to tell the driver to drive properly, he abused her. Realising it was unsafe, especially with children on the two-wheeler with her, she tried riding away. But this car followed her, overtaking other vehicles on the way. Fearing that the driver might hit her in anger, she went to the left side and parked her vehicle. The man also came, parked his car near her, got out of the car and hit her," said Siddesh.
Siddhesh said the traumatised children started crying, but the man did not care. "Thankfully, a couple passing by stopped and came to Dsilva's rescue. Seeing that people were noticing him, the man tried to flee, but Dsilva took away his car's keys. People assembled and the police personnel standing a few metres away also came," said Siddhesh, adding that the parents of the shocked children took them home.
Navneet Verma, the man who came to the rescue of DSilva, said the incident occurred in front of him at a distance of 100m.
"My wife and I were in the car behind her. We saw her stopping her two-wheeler on the side. All of a sudden the driver of the other car parked the vehicle near her, got out and tried to push the woman on the scooter with the kids very hard. They could have fallen into Ramnadi. Then he started hitting her. His wife was egging him on. By the time my wife and I reached there and pulled him, he had hit the woman on the nose," the resident of Baner-Pashan Link Road said.
"We caught him and handed him over to the police. We took the woman and the kids, who were frightened and crying, to a clinic on Sus Road, where they got first aid. By then she had called her brother," said Verma, an employee of DRDO.