Pune: An NRI is learning the lesson of his life for pushing the panic button. Sunday morning, all Kamal Jain, 65, stood to lose was Rs 100 against a parking ticket at a busy Pune marketplace. Instead, he spent the night in lockup, charged with section 307 -- attempt to murder -- but not before giving onlookers a bumbling Bollywood car chase sequence.
The drama started at 11am when assistant sub-inspector VB Jadhav spotted Jain`s Ford Ikon in a no-parking zone in front of a sweet meat shop at the Camp area. Jadhav, who was with a towing vehicle, went over and tried putting a jammer to the wheels of the car, which was blocking the road. "But then I saw a man dart out of the shop. Before I knew it, he was inside the car and had started it," said Jadhav. "He put it on reverse gear and then suddenly drove the car towards me. I leapt on to the bonnet to avoid being crushed under the wheels."
And there on the bonnet Jadhav hung on to the windscreen wipers for dear life as Jain`s car sped ahead, careening and screeching. "I kept screaming for help but he (Jain) refused to stop. He even abused me, threatened to teach me a lesson," said Jadhav, rattled even seven hours after the experience. "He drove at 80 (kmph). He knocked down four motorcycles. A couple was on one of them. I saw them getting badly injured."
Salvation reached 10 minutes later when a police vehicle started chasing Jain. DCP Ravindra Sengaonkar in the vehicle ordered Jain to stop, to no avail. Sengaonkar then fired six shots at the car`s tyres. Jadhav`s ordeal ended as the car careered to a stop, but Jain`s had just begun.
