It started yesterday, the 12th of August at 10.22am, in Andheri, Mumbai.
I was leaving my house to go out for some work and I noticed that a white Hyundai Xcent with yellow plates was right behind me as I was driving out of my society.
Before you ask me why I checked, let me tell you I don't know the answer to that. Maybe because I watch too many movies/TV Shows or if it's just instinct, I almost always check my mirrors to see if there's anyone following me or if there's anything untoward happening. No, I'm not involved in anything illegal, no I'm not rich, no I don't owe anyone any money, I'm just a regular 26 year old that doesn't know why he would be followed.
Back to the story - The white Hyundai Xcent behind me was a facelift model, I know this because it had DRLs. Anyway, I get out of my society, turn left, he turns left too. Which is normal, because I live on a fairly busy road and the only way to turn is left.
From the next light, I turn right. He turns right behind me. I drive for another 250m and turn right, he turns right again. At this point I spot a PUC Omni van and my car's PUC is due for renewal, so I stop to get that done. The person sitting inside the Omni tells me that he can't do it for a petrol car today, so I thanked him and drove on.
At this point I notice that there's a white Xcent behind me with Yellow plates and DRLs again. Now I start getting suspicious. It can't be the same car, right? Why would that car wait for me when I'm stopped at the PUC van?Nevertheless, I keep an eye on it.
I turn left 200m from the PUC van and join the service road to the western express highway.
The Xcent proceeds to turn left behind me. I drive for 500m and I see that the Xcent is right on my tail. It isn't changing lanes, not trying to overtake even though I'm giving it ample chances to. By this point I'm positive it's following me, so I decide to stop by the side of the road again, without indicating to see if it proceeds to stop behind me. Lo and behold - The Xcent stops right behind me.
I wait for 4-5 seconds, and start driving all the while my eyes switching focus between the road and the rear view mirror. I accelerate slowly at first, but then I gun it. The Xcent starts moving as soon as I first accelerate, but then for whatever reason, decides to give up the chase.
It took me another 30-35 minutes to reach where I wanted to go, and as you might imagine, I kept a keen eye on the IRVM. Even took the sea link when I didn't need to, to see if there was an ugly Xcent with DRLs behind, but there wasn't. I'm sure I lost the tail, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was all just a massive co-incidence.
The place where I stopped to check whether this guy was following me was right before the entrance to the International Airport. Maybe that was just a regular cab, waiting for an airport pick-up. And the cab that followed me from my society was just another Xcent taxi and not this one.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I let a few hours pass before I realised I have a dashcam. And I can check the footage to see if the Xcent that followed me from inside my society passed me when I stopped at the PUC van.
Now well, there's no other way to say this but
HE STOPPED, HE STOPPED WHEN I WAS WAITING AT THE PUC VAN. I CAN SEE HIM IN MY DASHCAM! HE WAS WAITING 2 CAR LENGTHS AHEAD OF ME!
Here's a series of pictures showing me turning in near the PUC van, him turning in ahead of me and stopping while I was talking to the PUC van:
Next, I looked at the footage from when I was leaving my society. But before that, here's how my society is designed - There's the main road, and a gate at the main road, then there's a big area of parking cars and then the main society begins and this is where the security checks happen. So there are 2 gates - The main road gate and the inside gate. This guy was waiting
in the middle of the main road gate and the inside gate - The place where some cars are parked.
The security at the main road gate are pretty lackadaisical and don't stop and ask people when they enter.
Anyway, here he is - with his car parked and DRLs on, waiting for me:
You can see his DRLs are on, which means the engine is running:
Here's the final spot I stopped at, on the Western Express Highway to confirm the tail before I gunned it and lost him:
Erm, so yeah. Pretty iffy, I know. What do I do now? Do I file an FIR? Do I wait and see if it happens again? The registration numbers I've been able to shortlist are:
MH 02 EH 3808 - RTO website unable to find the details of this vehicle
MH 02 EH 3804 - Registered to one "Dhanlaxmi tours and travels" in December 2016, so pre-facelift. (Maybe it got into an accident and was repaired with parts from the facelift?) But it's white and diesel.
Any help will be appreciated