The incident took place on Tuesday night.

Rajnish Jha (33) had hired a TATA Sumo from Rishra, Hooghly district, on Tuesday morning and travelled throughout the day, with his father Devendranath Jha, and his cousin, Rajesh Jha.

When the exhausted driver, Md Aftab Alam, requested him to relieve him of the duty, the Major, at 12.30 am, ordered him to bring some food for them. When the driver protested, he was beaten up mercilessly, police said.

“This sparked tension in the area and the taxi drivers nearby started protesting against it,” said Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters) Vineet Kumar Goyal.

Goyal added that the Park Street police immediately rushed to the spot and the three men were taken into police custody.

“At night, when I wanted to go back home, the person started hitting me on my face and made me bled,” said Alam, who was taken to the Calcutta National Medical College from where he was released after primary treatment.

He said the trio had hired three cars in the morning and came to Fort William, the Army Eastern region headquarters, and then they stayed there for the whole day, after which they travelled in my vehicle.

On the night of December 31, 2006, a platoon of Armymen in uniform vandalised the Park Street police station after a major and a captain were arrested for teasing some women at a hotel in the area.