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Mumbai brave youngsters
An incident that shocked the entire nation...two innocent boys in their
20s attacked and killed in suburban Mumbai’s Marol area. Mumbai has lost two brave youngsters
Rueben Fernandes (28) and Keenan Santos (25) were stabbed on the night of October 20 by a gang of eve teasers when they stood against the menace of
eve-teasing. While Keenan died soon after, Rueben fought for his life for 11 days until he too breathed his last early this week
in a hospital. Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes paid the price for not looking away,
for defending the honour of the women who accompanied them that fateful day.
On October 20, 2011 Rueben Fernandes and Keenan Santos with five of their friends including three girls
were out on an evening of cricket and dinner together. As was their
routine, they dined at Amboli Kitchen and Bar restaurant, watched a cricket match, and were standing near a paan shop, when the incident
occurred.
The seven of them were waiting for their order of sweet paan when a
group of goons lingering at the spot, and who were later identified as Jitendra Rana (25), Sunil Bote (20), Satish Dulgaj (35) and Deepak Tival
(19), started passing lewd comments at the girls. The group of friends initially tried to ignore them, but when Rana started walking towards
the girls, one of them, Avinash Solanki, intervened and blocked Rana's path. They got in to a heated argument, ending with Rana abusing
Avinash, and the latter slapping him. Rueben too joined in and slapped Rana as well. Rana and his gang then left with a threat to kill them.
Keenan and Rueben with Avinash and Benjamin in happier times
Rueben, Keenan and others continued standing at the spot, but soon Rana returned with a big group of goons
armed with knives and bamboo shoots. Panicked, the boys pushed the girls to safety inside the restaurant, and started shouting for help. But no
one came forward, depite the area being a crowded one. Rana and his men got hold of Keenan and stabbed him repeatedly on the
stomach and chest and then lunged at Rueben too. Rueben's brother, Benjamin, who was already injured a few days back and had his hand in a
cast, was also attacked and hit repeatedly on the injured hand. Avinash spotted a ladder nearby, and threw it on the attackers, which made them
fall. He then rushed Keenan inside the restaurant where he and a waiter tried to give him first aid.
A crowd had gathered by this time, but no one came to their help despite
repeated cries for help, and did not even stop the attackers when they fled the scene. And what is even more shameful is the way crowds simply
stood by watching without moving a muscle, as if it were a scene from a film shooting. Keenan's girlfriend Priyanka who was an eyewitness to the stabbing said
her sense of security has shattered. "People stood there watching...did nothing," she said in between sobs of istress.
The incident has put the entire Mumbai to shame, but what is even more
shocking is the delayed response by the police. One of the girls had started calling 100 for police as soon as the
attackers arrived. But even after trying for an hour, she could not get through as the line was continuously engaged. Finally, a police picked
the call, but instead of coming to help immediately, started asking the
same questions about location and landmarks a number of times. The police arrived only after the injured boys were taken to hospital.
Police, however, did manage to arrest the four main accused, who were
then booked under IPC sections 302, 307, 324 and 34. Following the incident, social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter have erupted with angry responses from millions across the nation. |
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Mumbai Diary (November 4, 2011)