Mumbai, Apr 23 (Mid-day): A day after a television actress Monaz Mevawala filed a complaint against an auto rickshaw driver who damaged her car and abused her during a road rage incident, police officials identified the accused and arrested him yesterday.

Police managed to trace the auto driver after viewing the video footage of the incident, which the actress had recorded on her phone during the fracas. The incident had taken place at 1.30 pm on the busy SV Road in Goregaon on Monday, when the actress was on her way to a shoot.

A video grab of the accused auto driver while he was threatening and damaging Monaz Mevawala’s vehicle on Monday afternoon

The accused has been identified as Haider Ali Abbas Ali Mobin, a rickshaw driver by profession who resides at Goregaon west. Soon after the altercation, Monaz approached the local police station and filed a complaint. She also posted details of the incident, along with the video footage, on her Facebook page.

According to the post, the accused auto driver was in front of her vehicle at a signal on SV Road, looking back and continuously and staring at her. “When the signal went green he didn’t let me take a left as he was still looking at me and obstructing my way,” she said in the post.

“I tried to overtake him and he came charging at me and in the process scratched my car with his side mirror, and apparently his mirror broke, for which he got extremely angry and followed me. He then took out a bamboo stick and tried to hit my car with it and started screaming, ‘Aaj toh tujhe bahut marunga’ (Today I will hit you a lot),” she added.

“He drove ahead of me and blocked my way. I tried to escape but this he did thrice, and then he approached my car from the right side and hit it with his hand and again removed the bamboo stick and hit my car.

As I was alone in the car, it was impossible for me to get down and hit him back, but I used my presence of mind to click his picture. Since he was not able to harm me physically, he was determined to hit me so he parked his rickshaw and he came running after me,” she said.

The next sequence of events that took place was captured on her mobile phone, wherein the footage shows the accused driver yanking out her windscreen wiper, banging the car with his hands and then stepping back once he realises he is being filmed.

Damage is also visible to the side view mirror of her vehicle. “I was lucky that I was in my car and it was locked. Everyday innocent girls are at a risk of being attacked like this,” said Mevawala in the post.

Police speak

“We have arrested the accused rickshaw driver who was seen in the video footage. He has been several sections of the IPC. The actress has filed a complaint regarding the incident, after which we launched a manhunt.

We managed to arrest him yesterday and will produce him before the court,” said Arun Jadhav, senior inspector Goregaon police station.