A city bus conductor allegedly held a girl student hostage for over 45 minutes in a bus on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Firday. Bengaluru police has arrested the conductor based on girl’s post on a social networking site.
The girl is a student of Shrishti College of Arts at Yelahanka.
According to the girl’s post on Facebook she was held hostage for over 45 minutes in the bus following an altercation between her male friend, who escaped fearing an assault, and the conductor.
Her ordeal began around 7.30 pm on Wednesday when she along with her male friend was travelling in a BMTC bus. According to her complaint, while they were heading home, the conductor approached them and started abusing her friend for standing by her side in the ‘ladies-only’ section.
Soon, a brawl broke out between the conductor and her friend following which her friend fled the spot after pushing the conductor to the ground. little did she know that she will end up being hostage for no fault of hersIJ
She said in her post “I was detained alone in a local BMTC bus (402B, KA8022) by the conductor and driver. Some police inspectors were just outside the NES, Yelahanka police station. I was coming home from college, when the conductor picked up a fight with my north-eastern friend and began to abuse him for standing by my side in the middle section (ladies section) of the bus. When my friend went and sat on the stairs, the bus conductor began hurling abuses at him and even pushed him. Enraged over this, my friend did the same following which the conductor fell onto the floor.”
It further read, “Seeing the conductor falling on the floor, soon a mob gathered thinking that my friend is an attacker and surrounded him. Sensing trouble, he fled. Meanwhile, the conductor, who got offended decided to stop by the NES police station (one of the stops on the bus route) and demanded that I provide details about my friend. Before I could do anything, the conductor locked me inside the bus. When I ordered him to release me, he refused, and the policemen who were present there said they wouldn’t open the bus till my friend arrives at the police station.”
After her post went viral, senior police officers swung into action and took a suo-motu case in this connection and arrested the accused BMTC bus conductor.
DCP (North-East) P.S. Harsha said, “The accused conductor, Uma Shankar, was arrested on Thursday morning. The police treated the Facebook post as an official complaint and a case was registered in Yelahanka Old Town police station. The conductor has been booked under Section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of IPC. They had also contacted the girl student for filing FIR but she chose not to go ahead with the complaint. The issue is being probed from all angles and a report will be submitted by the ACP.”
The girl has now removed her post from the Facebook.