Pune: Three men damaged 18 vehicles — 15 autorickshaws, two cars and a school van — with stones and sticks between 12.35am and 1am on Wednesday at Dhankawdi, and threatened residents with dire consequences if anyone intervened in their act of vandalism, claiming themselves to be local “Bhais” (strongmen).Sumit Rangnekar (42), a resident of the area, lodged a complaint with the Sahakarnagar police later in the morning. The trio damaged the windshield of his car. Deputy commissioner of police (Zone II) Milind Mohite told TOI, “The reason behind the vandalism is not known yet. Our team is studying the CCTV footage of the area, which shows the three men riding on a motorcycle and damaging the vehicles parked on a road. They have been riding triple-seat.” Inspector Surekha Chavan of the Sahakarnagar police said, “The three men damaged the vehicles parked on the public road. A majority of the affected people are autorickshaw drivers, who stay nearby.” An autorickshaw driver (48) said, “I had parked my autorickshaw on the road around 10.30pm on Tuesday. After parking my autorickshaw, I went home. I received a call from one of my friends around 1am, stating that someone damaged the windshield of my autorickshaw.”He said, “Now, to repair the windshield, I will have to spend around Rs2,000. I also will miss two days’ income, which is around Rs600 to Rs700 per day.”DCP Mohite said, “We suspect that the case of vehicle vandalism is connected to another case of house ransacking in the area. A man celebrated his birthday with his second wife and two sons, and three sons of his earlier wife came to his house and ransacked it. The three men were seen leaving the same area on their motorcycle where the ransacked house is located. We are yet to arrive at any conclusion, though.”Late on Sunday night, a gang of eight men damaged a grocery store and then damaged an autorickshaw. On Saturday evening, three people damaged eight vehicles in Kondhwa over an old rivalry.
