A 45-year-old taxi driver, Rajesh Yadav, has been acquitted after an 18-year-long legal battle in an assault case. He claimed that in 2007, a fight broke out between a passenger and a fellow taxi driver outside Churchgate railway station. Seeing the scuffle, Yadav decided to intervene and helped resolve the issue, but the driver took to his heels. Yadav was, however, wrongly identified as the assailant and subsequently arrested by the police. According to him, the real accused was someone with a similar name — Rajendra Yadav.

Following the registration of the FIR, Yadav, a Colaba resident, was forced to sell his taxi to raise money for legal expenses. He told mid-day that he spent two nights in Arthur Road Jail and one night in custody at the Marine Drive police station. Over the course of 18 years, he attended more than 80 court hearings.

Yadav recounted, “On April 24, 2007, I was waiting for a customer outside Churchgate railway station when a fight broke out between a passenger and a taxi driver. I went there to find out what had happened and tried to mediate. The passenger was bleeding, and around 10-12 taxi drivers and other people were present. As I was trying to intervene, the taxi driver involved in the altercation fled, and the passenger mistook me for him and took me to the police station.”