VASCO: Miscreants damaged the windshields of 10 vehicles – two trucks, six tipper trucks, a tempo and a private car – at Birla-Zuarinagar on Sunday midnight. The vehicle owners and shocked locals have demanded strict action against the culprits, who caused damages of around Rs 2 lakh.
A few locals had witnessed the incident, but they were unable to identify the culprits as the latter were wearing masks, besides carrying sticks and rods. The vehicle owners were also clueless as to the identity of the culprits.
The vandalism sparked tension in the village on Monday morning, and it was only after police assured to take strict action against the culprits that the situation returned to normal. Incidentally, as per police records, Zuarinagar is a ‘hypersensitive’ area in the taluka.
Durgesh Shirol’s truck was amongst the vandalized vehicles. He stated, “My driver informed me that he had seen three masked men armed with wooden sticks and rods at Chougule Bhat (heavy-vehicle parking site used by locals). These three men asked the people at the site to leave the area or be thrashed. Out of fear, the people left the site. When they came back in an hour, they were shocked to see that the culprits had selectively damaged vehicles in the parking lot. We feel that the vandalism was due to some previous enmity or revenge.”
While the windshields of nine transport vehicles were damaged at Chougule Bhat, the rear windshield of a Maruti Ertiga car owned by Dr Ravindranath Patil was damaged with a beer bottle while it was parked near Ganpati Temple, Birla. All ten vehicle owners lodged a joint complaint with Verna police.
Meanwhile, police theorized two motives for the vandalism. They stated, “Recently, a few locals had lodged a complaint against encroachments on an open property, after which the culprit was forced to stop work. We are investigating whether that person is involved in the vandalism. Additionally, a local panchayat ward is holding a by-poll. Hence, we are trying to ascertain if the vandalism was politically motivated; someone wanted to pressurize the truck/tipper owners to support a particular candidate.”