Auto-driver, accomplices held for assault

A threewheeler driver and his accomplices were booked for allegedly assaulting passengers and robbing them of cash and a mobile phone. The complainant, Priya Batra Naik, said that he and his friend boarded an auto rickshaw in which two persons were already sitting in the guise of passengers. The driver took the vehicle to a secluded area where the two fake passengers took out sharpedged weapons and started beating his friend. After his friend jumped out of the moving vehicle, the robbers robbed him of Rs 1000 and a mobile phone. Police officials said that they have started investigations and identified the accused as Ashwani Kumar and Karan Kumar from Nanaksar Mohalla and Mani Kumar from New Shimlapuri.