A retired Indian Army officer who was assaulted by a group of men, beer bottles in hand, in Haryana's Gurugram has shared more details of the attack that left him injured, following a minor traffic incident. He spent two days in a hospital.
Colonel Anil Yadav (retired) told NDTV that he accepted there had been an accident, and he would pay for any damage.
The group of men, at least five of them, however, didn't listen to the retired army officer. Instead, the men who were clearly under the influence boasted "they don't care about the military", Colonel Yadav said.
"All this while I was telling them I'm not denying there has been an accident. I'll pay for this. And secondly, I am an army veteran. What disturbed me incredibly was they said 'hum bhi zamidaar ke bete hain, humare bhi chacha, tau fauj mein the, aur hum bhi fauji se koi matlab nahi hain (we are also sons of zamindars, our uncles were in the military, anyway we don't care about the military)'," Colonel Yadav told NDTV.
According to the army veteran, he was going home in his car, a 40-minute drive, in Gurugram when another car swerved in his lane from the front. He said he braked hard, but still his car made contact with the one in the front that suddenly appeared from the side.
"I came out to see what's the damage, talk to the other driver and sort it out. Then I see some five-six men come out from the other car. They had beer bottles in hand. They looked aggressive, so I climbed back in my car," Colonel Yadav said.
Assault Begins
He was about to close the door when the men grabbed him and pulled him out. Colonel Yadav said he talked to them calmly that he'd pay if it was any of his fault.
"There was not much damage. I'll pay, I told them. To my surprise, they said they will see the car later but see me first... They started hitting me, pulled me out, took my mobile phone, key, and my copper water bottle, which they hit me on the head with. They banged my head against my car," Colonel Yadav told NDTV.
He fell on the ground. The men kicked him in the ribs.
"I tried to get up, reason with them. And then they realised there was traffic, so they thought that they would take me somewhere else. With that, they pushed me into their car, an i20. I sat in the centre.
"They tried to start my car, but they couldn't because they didn't know how to drive it. You have to put the seat buckle inside, then only it will drive... They then said either I pay up or they'd keep hitting me. Obviously, I had no choice. I said, 'whatever you want, you take it. But give me my phone so that I can UPI the money. Because I knew UPI would leave a trail. So I paid and they let me get out of the car.
"I think somebody passing by had also informed the police. By the time they came I was already in the hospital. I was given some emergency medical treatment and then admitted there," Colonel Yadav told NDTV.
The men took Rs 30,000 from the army veteran. All five of them have been arrested. They are Pankaj (23), Vikas (21), and Nikhil (21) from Rewari and Sahil (22), and Ankit Kumar (22) from Mahendragarh.
Pankaj, Sahil, and Ankit work at a Nippon company in Rewari; Vikas is a BA and Nikhil a BCom second-year student.
'No Respect For Elders'
Colonel Yadav expressed sadness that young people like them these days do not give the slightest importance to elders, to people in uniform, "to anybody for that matter".
"If they behave like this with people in uniform or somebody who is a veteran and somebody, you know, who is telling them that he was a colonel and a senior officer and all, I can imagine what they can do to common people on the roads, or a young woman on the road. This is highly disturbing. I don't know where we are heading, where our society is heading," the retired army officer said.
He called for tighter and frequent patrolling, and left to the wisdom of experts on crime-fighting any other suggestion that can help improve safety in Gurugram.
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