A broken nose, bloodied lips and a bruised shoulder were what Bandra resident Vistasp Kharas received when he tried to chastise two young men who flung an empty cola can on the road from their BMW car on June 14, 2014. The 44-year-old Kharas, an architect, was on his way home that evening when he witnessed the incident. "I got out and picked up the can. I then saw that the car had stopped at the signal... I asked the driver, ‘Have you lost something?’ and showed him the can. He said he had thrown it out.” Realizing that there was no point in continuing the conversation, Kharas returned to his car, muttering under his breath, reported The Indian Express (IE) of June 16.
Vistasp Kharas: can of contention
As soon as he returned to his car the driver of the BMW, who had followed him, reportedly began to bang on the window. When Kharas rolled down the window he said he was slapped, dragged onto the road and severely thrashed. "One of them was punching me from the front, while the other started attacking from behind,” Kharas told Mumbai Mirror (MM) of June 16. When the signal turned green the duo got into their car and drove away. Kharas then went to the Holy Family Hospital where his injuries were attended to.
The young men, Armaan Chaudhry and Ronit Kanuga, a pilot, were arrested from the latter’s residence on June 17 after the police traced the car’s registration number to Kanuga. The police reportedly said Chaudhry confessed to attacking Kharas. They were produced before a metropolitan court and remanded to judicial custody and later let off on bail of Rs 15,000 each, despite objections from the police.
Kanuga’s father, a businessman, told Hindustan Times (HT) on June 18 that the matter was being "blown out of proportion.” His version was that "Chaudhry was driving the car and threw the empty can aiming for a garbage bin, but he missed. Kharas saw this, picked up the can, and followed their car. After confronting them, he walked away abusing them. (Chaudhry) said he was sorry, but Kharas shouldn’t have abused him. But it escalated into an argument and they got into a fight. My son was trying to separate them when the other man fell.”
Kharas told HT: "I have grown up in this city and want to see it clean. It’s everyone’s responsibility,” averring that this experience would not deter him from stopping litterbugs. Kharas later informed MM (June 18): "It is disappointing that they were let off so easily. I was hoping they would spend some time behind bars and it would serve as a lesson to others like them.”