A 35-year-old auto-rickshaw driver has been struggling for justice since mid-January, when a person posed as a passenger and later snatched his mobile phone. The driver later found his bank account had also been cleaned out. To add to this, the driver, Acchelal Yadav, claimed the police manipulated the facts and lodged a theft case when it amounts to robbery, as the mobile phone was snatched by the passenger. The Nirmal Nagar police have denied they manipulated facts.

Yadav, a native of Varanasi who stays in Kurla, plies an autorickshaw in Mumbai. “I was waiting for a passenger in Kurla late on January 16 when a young boy told me to take him to Bandra East. During his journey, he kept asking me details about my savings and if I accept online payment. I did not know he would target me,” said Yadav.