Four held on charge of assaulting KSRTC crew at Challakere

The Chitradurga district police arrested four persons, including a woman, on Thursday on the charge of assaulting the crew of a KSRTC bus in Challakere town on Thursday.

The Chitradurga district police arrested four persons, including a woman, on Thursday on the charge of assaulting the crew of a KSRTC bus in Challakere town on Thursday.

The arrested have been identified as Chandrika, Mallikarjun, Shivaraj, and Naveen, residents of Challakere.

The woman, a Shakti scheme beneficiary, and the other accused got the conductor A.B. Chandre Gowda out of the bus when he was facilitating passengers to disembark at Challakere Circle at 6.30 a.m. The bus was plying from Rayadurg in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh to Bengaluru. The four later rained blows on the conductor. In his complaint to the Challakere police, Mr. Gowda said driver Hanumantha too was assaulted when he came to his (conductor’s) rescue.

The KSRTC, in a statement, said the woman boarded the same bus on June 20 to travel to Dobbspet in Nelamangala taluk. Upon Mr. Gowda saying that the bus would not stop at Dobbspet as it was an inter-State service and suggesting that she travel up to Tumakuru, the woman bought a ticket up to Hiriyur, saying she would take another bus from there.

However, she did not alight at Hiriyur and instead bought another ticket to Tumakuru. The woman, Mr. Gowda said, did not alight at Tumakuru either and instead began abusing him and threatening him brandishing her footwear. The conductor got the bus stopped near Dobbspet flyover where the woman alighted.

Early Thursday morning, the woman came along with Mallikarjun, and Shivaraj and Naveen, her sons, and assaulted the crew, the conductor said in the complaint.

The Challakere police have registered cases of wrongful restraint, causing hurt with weapon and hurting a public servant thereby deterring him from performing his duty, under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code against the accused.