Team Goemkarponn
CALANGUTE: After a group of Pune tourists were allegedly attacked by a taxi driver and another individual at the St. Anthony’s Chapel intersection in Calangute on Diwali night when they were trying to cross the street at around 9 p.m., the safety of tourists visiting Goa has once again come under scrutiny.
As the road was closed on both sides due to Diwali night traffic, Rizwan Sheikh, a Pune visitor, told reporters about the incident. He asked a taxi driver who was parked in the middle of the road to move a bit ahead.
“The cabbie became abusive after I instructed him to move, asking me who I was to give him that order. Then he exited the car and began assaulting me. He also allegedly assaulted my wife when she attempted to stop him. “The drunken taxi driver also attacked other female family members,” Sheikh added.
Another taxi driver hurried to assist the first taxi driver and started attacking the tourists when the other family members tried to stop the attack.
The two taxi drivers left the area as the tourists phoned the police. Fauzia Sheikh, Rizwan Sheikh’s wife, was upset and afraid and later complained to the Calangute police station, after which an “The cabbie became abusive after I instructed him to move, asking me who I was to give him that order. Then he exited the car and began assaulting me. He also allegedly assaulted my wife when she attempted to stop him. “The drunken taxi driver also attacked other female family members,” Sheikh added.
Another taxi driver hurried to assist the first taxi driver and started attacking the tourists when the other family members tried to stop the attack.
The two taxi drivers left the area as the tourists phoned the police. Fauzia Sheikh, Rizwan Sheikh’s wife, was upset and afraid and later complained to the Calangute police station, after which an FIR was filed.
Nadia Sheikh, one of the visitors, claimed that the cab drivers were fully intoxicated and using foul Goan language on them.
According to Calangute police, the tourists’ complaint included the tourist cab registration number, which allowed them to track down the vehicle’s owner, Philip Xavier Noronha, and obtain his phone number from the registration.
“However, the phone number was switched off and the taxi driver also had not returned to his residence in the night where a police team went there,” Paresh Naik, the police chief of Calangute When he came back in the morning, Calangute police said he was arrested. The other cab driver who participated in the assault has not yet been taken into custody.
