Bhubaneswar, June 4: A 37-year-old woman sustained injuries after an autorickshaw driver stabbed her with a knife at Adheikhal in BJB Nagar here this morning following an altercation.

The autorickshaw had hit the woman’s teenage daughter while she was crossing the road. This led to a heated exchange of words between the driver and the woman, ultimately resulting in the attack. The driver, Patia Pradhan, 45, was arrested in the evening.

The woman, Sarmistha Mohanty of Goutam Nagar, sustained injuries on her left hand, chest and back. She was admitted to Capital Hospital and later discharged after preliminary treatment.

Sarmistha’s 15-year-old daughter, Sneha Das, a Class IX student at a private school in the capital, said her mother was going to drop her for tuition classes at BJB Nagar. “My mother stopped the car outside my tuition classes and I was crossing the road when a speeding autorickshaw hit me. I fell down, injuring my leg. My mother shouted at the autorickshaw driver to stop but he sped away,” said the girl.

The mother-daughter duo then got inside the car, chased the three-wheeler that was fleeing towards Badagada and managed to intercept the autorickshaw near Adheikhal slum, where the driver lives.

As Sarmistha argued with the driver, local people gathered at the spot. Within minutes, the driver pulled out a knife from under the seat of his vehicle, stabbed Sarmistha several times and then fled the spot in his vehicle.

The local people informed Badagada police, who rushed to the spot and took her to the hospital. The police seized the autorickshaw later on from another place near the slum.

The local people alleged that Pradhan was a drug addict and often got into brawls. “He behaves like a madman most of the time and is always furious. Before we could do anything, he attacked the woman and took to his heels,” said Sanatan Sahu, a resident of the slum.

A senior police officer said during the course of the inquiry, they found that Pradhan was indeed a drug addict. “We found him hiding in that area in the evening and arrested him,” he said.

The police have made it mandatory for autorickshaw drivers to get identity cards issued by the traffic police and display them behind their seats for passengers’ information.

“Though passengers complain about harassment by these drivers, it is difficult for us to take action. We keep a photocopy of their driving licences and voter identity cards. But, it is always not possible to check their criminal antecedents,” said a senior traffic police officer.

Authorities of the Regional Transport Office here said they did not have any policy to check criminal antecedents of people applying for driving licences. “We issue licences to all those who furnish authentic documents as per rules. If police inform us about any wrong activities related to driving by them, we cancel their licences,” said Lalmohan Sethi, regional transport officer, Bhubaneswar.