Mumbai: Youth who made up "gau rakshak" attack story arrested

In a Facebook post in August this year, Barun Kashyap had claimed that an auto driver had harassed him for carrying a leather bag

24-year-old Barun Kashyap, who had claimed to have been assaulted by an auto-rickshaw driver because he was carrying a leather bag, has been arrested. This was after the police found out that he had concocted the story because he was late for work.

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Kashyap had , who hails from Assam and works as a creative director with RM Pictures in Andheri, had described his ordeal in a Facebook post, where he claimed that an auto driver, wearing a "teeka" and a "saffron coloured muffler", had stopped and harassed him for carrying a leather bag made from cow-hide. The Facebook post drew hundreds of reactions from outraged Mumbaikars and sent cops into a tizzy.

To legitimise his claim, he even approached the Amboli police, who registered an offence under various sections of the IPC against the unknown "gau rakshak".

The police had also prepared a sketch, but none of the auto drivers claimed to have seen such a driver. The vehicle plate number given by Kashyap also turned out to be that of some other vehicle and not an auto. After running around in circles, the crime branch was finally able to call Kashyap's bluff, when they checked his call records. However, Kashyap's call details showed that he was at home for the major part of the day.