TURA: The owner of a local cafeteria was assaulted by a couple, one of whom is a government teacher, because the former did not give way to their vehicle on a steep road on the outskirts of Tura on Saturday morning.
The incident happened when Red Door Cafe owner Brenden W Momin was returning to the restaurant from Rongkhon where he had gone to pick up gas refill cylinders.
“I was driving up from Rongkhon to Tura with five gas cylinders in my vehicle when a Mahindra Thar Jeep behind me repeatedly wanted to overtake despite the road being so narrow with vehicles coming to and fro. When I was able to finally give him space to overtake he started blocking and driving haphazardly,” Brenden told The Shillong Times.
The occupants of the Mahindra Thar vehicle, Sonam G Momin and her partner Hitler Sangma, stopped their vehicle in front of the Municipal Hub market at Ringrey and accosted the cafe owner who was with his elder brother in their Ford Ecosport vehicle.
Claiming that they were shown indecent gestures, the woman and her partner attacked the cafe owner throwing punches on him even though he tried to reason it out with them over the overtaking issue.
The woman is a teacher in Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Tura.
The assault did not stop there and when the young cafe owner, who was bleeding, arrived at the Tura police station to lodge a complaint he was again slapped by the same woman.
Police did not take up any suo motu case on the grounds that the matter was compromised after the accused couple apologised to the victim.
Also, when the injured person pointed out to the police that the jeep belonging to the attackers had illegal tinted glasses and no number plate at the back, they merely responded by saying it was the job of the traffic personnel.
“It was not surprising that the police would look the other way, after all the accused woman’s brother happens to be a deputy superintendent of police who is posted at Raksamgre as the sub-divisional police officer but is more often found to be in Tura,” remarked several netizens with many condemning the incident and demanding answers from police.
Of late, there have been several incidents of street brawls taking place in the town. On the day the cafe owner was attacked, a brawl took place at Ringrey market after a drunk accosted a district council officer and verbally abused him.
On New Year, butchers at Kabul market closed shop after a gang of revellers arrived on the spot and tried to forcibly take away chickens. When the butchers protested, they were assaulted prompting the traders to down the shutters.
