SHILLONG: The senior staff photographer of The Shillong Times, Sanjib Bhattacharjee was threatened and intimidated by two local taxi drivers in Police Bazar on Friday evening.
The incident happened around 5:30-6 pm while he was passing by Police Bazar point.
The crux of the matter is that a disabled lady in a wheel chair along with two of her aides were trying to book a local taxi bearing registration number ML-05D-8018 to ferry them to Rhino Officers Institute but the taxi driver insisted that he would drop them at Civil Hospital point only despite repeated requests by the lady who reminded him that she was booking the taxi and not looking for a share ride.
The photographer intervened and told the driver that seeing the lady’s physical condition, he ought to treat it as a priority matter and act humanely to which the driver reacted angrily when he saw that Bhattacharjee had clicked a photograph of the scene with his phone.
The taxi driver threatened him with dire consequences if he did not delete the photos but the photographer refused.
Shortly after, a traffic policeman came and Bhattacharjee left the spot but the taxi driver called another person, probably a taxi driver and the duo followed him up to Shillong Studio, Jail Road and again threatened him if he didn’t delete the photos.
When contacted, Police said the taxi driver and the vehicle were detained in Police Bazar after the matter was taken up with the police.
