Eve-teasers beat up cops

MUMBAI: Eight youths first beat up a Nagpada shopkeeper for protesting against their teasing a girl and then policemen who intervened in the fracas, sending them to hospital on Friday.
Six of the accused ��� Rafique Shaikh (20), Furqan Ahmed (18), Saahil Ansari (19), Sameer Patel (22), Sufyan Khan (24) and Rehan Ansari ��� were arrested near K D Building at the Nagpada junction, senior inspector Ashok Duraphe said.Two others were still on the run, he added.
The incident occurred around 11 pm. Three of the accused ��� Ahmed, Shaikh and Ansari ��� came on a motorbike and misbehaved with a girl on her way to Madanpura with her mother, witnesses said.
Shopkeeper Mohammad Shaikh tried to come to the women's rescue but was abused and beaten up. The miscreants fled when others from the neighbourhood came up to help the shopkeeper.
But they returned after half-an-hour with their friends, who were armed with rods and chains, and attacked shopkeeper Shaikh. The Nagpada policemen, who had come by then, were also attacked. But six of the miscreants were nabbed.
The injured policemen ��� assistant sub-inspector Jaywant Shirke (50), head constable Rajendra Awtade (38) and constables Chandrashekhar Sawant (34) and Suresh Gadigaonkar (32) ��� and shopkeeper Shaikh were admitted to J J Hospital and were in a stable condition.
Shaikh was discharged from the hospital on Saturday morning but Shirke was shifted to Bombay Hospital since he sustained severe head injuries.
Assistant commissioner of police Sayyed Mubeen said the accused, too, belonged to Madanpura (where the girl was going). "Residents of the area told us such incidents were common. We will be looking out for such miscreants with greater vigilance now," Sayyed Mubeen said.