According to Gazbe, who has been admitted to Rukminibai Hospital, the incident took place when she was walking towards a construction site near her house. ``I was crossing the road when Dhotre's autorickshaw hit me on my shoulder,'' she said.

When she stopped him to demand an explanation, she claimed, ``He began hurling abuses, saying the fault was mine. I insisted that he accompany me to the police station. But he tried to flee. When I grabbed his hand to prevent him from escaping, he suddenly attacked me.''

According to eyewitnesses, Gazbe was punched on her head and in her abdomen. ``She lost her balance and fell down in the muck,'' pointed out a local shopkeeper, who informed that the crowd that later gathered took her to the Mahatma Phule police station and then to the Rukminibai Hospital.

``She has haemotoma on her forehead, which needs to be attended to,'' informed the doctor on duty, who, however, said she was out of danger.Police have since nabbed Dhotre under Section 107 and 151 (1) of the Indian Penal Code, informed Mahatma Phule police station in-charge A M Athavale.

Dhotre has in his statement said that for the last four months, he had been driving a rickshaw during his duty hours after going to office and marking himself present.

He has said his brother Mahindra, also a KDMC safai kamgar, also drives the rickshaw during duty hours.

Officials at the ward office were guarded in their response to the incident. ``Dhotre has been reporting for work daily,'' claimed ward officer K S Chavan, who maintained that the sanitary inspector, S Sulakhe, had seen Dhotre `report for work until yesterday.'