On the 24th and 25th of this month, 5th edition of India Bike Week was celebrated in Goa by bikers from all across the country. This was the largest gathering of bikers in India, till date. Overall, the festival has been a success. But, there is one incident which has come to light, which spoils the spirit of the festival.
A biker / vlogger from Mumbai, 20 year old Saurabh Mayekar was attending the event. The young biker was also posting updates about the venue, the bikes he saw there, etc, on his social media account. One update he posted on his account, can be seen below.
Thanks to connected audience / friends, the owner of the said Kawasaki Z800, Ajit Murkute got to know about this update.
“I tried my best to keep my calm despite the fact that foul language was attributed to my bike, and simply asked him to delete the post as it might impact the future sale of my bike. He was brusque in the beginning but later apologized, saying that he was in a bad mood and removed the post,” recounted Murkute, a 26-year-old businessman based in Pune, in an interview with Pune Mirror.
On the other hand, Mayekar says, “I had sent an apology to Murkute on SMS, as he had wished to put everything behind him. In fact, Murkute also asked me to meet him in the evening of November 25 almost as if he was extending an olive branch, and I agreed.”
When Mayekar reached the place to meet Murkute, he was waiting there with his brother and group of superbike friends. Watch the video below to see what happened next.
Mayekar adds, “They would not relent despite my apology. They hit me several times and demanded that I apologise to the bike.”
Gajanan Laigude, a friend of Ajit Murkute, has a different story to tell. “We spent a whole day talking to him, requesting that he take down the post. Instead of doing so, he simply said ‘dekhta hoon’ (we shall see).” Laigude says that it was the vlogger and his friends who got physical first and not Murkute.
Soon, Soham Jadhav from the superbiker group of Pune intervened. Soham created a whatsapp group, and added Murkute, superbikers from Pune and Mayekar. He tried to solve the issue by telling Mayekar to apologize in the group. “Soham added me on the group and said he would remove my name as soon as I apologised. I did as I was told, but people kept abusing me on the group as well,” said Mayekar.
Saurabh Mayekar speaks
I was quiet from the past couple of days. Well to be frank i was scared infact very very scared , but i was getting…
Posted by Saurabh Mayekar on Thursday, 30 November 2017
IBW’s Press Statement
We condemn such an act. By the time our security men reached the spot, they had all cleared out. We have identified an attacker and the superbike owner, and have decided to ban them from IBW. We do not tolerate such behaviour.
What is even more shocking, is the threatening language used by the superbike owners who were part of this madness at IBW. Thanks to IBW, who have decided to ban such people from the event, it sends out the right message.
