A physically challenged Mumbai shopkeeper was attacked by a sword-brandishing assailant Tuesday night and was saved by a customer who sprang to his rescue.
The incident was recorded on the store's CCTV cameras, and shows the assailant entering with the sword hidden behind his back. He then goes after Rajnish Singh Thakur, the shopkeeper, and slashed his neck and arms in two quick strokes. But before he could deal a more damaging blow, the customer pounced on him, and managed to push him out of the store.
The assailant was eventually overpowered by the customer, and other people who had gathered outside the store. He had six other accomplices who drove away, according to this report. Four of them were later arrested.
Thakur is currently admitted to a hospital's intensive car unit. The attack was linked to extortionists in Mumbai's Chembur area, who had threatened to attack shops which did not pay them regularly. Thakur was defiant, and had put up posters that urged all shopkeepers to go as a group and register a complaint with the deputy commissioner of police.
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