MANDYA: A KSRTC bus driver allegedly abused a freedom fighter and asked the conductor to throw him out of the bus here on Monday morning.
The incident occurred on a bus (KA 07 F 1457) going to Tumakuru from Mysuru via Bengaluru. When the bus started from Mysuru at 9 am, 90-year-old Dr Shastry, an Ayurvedic doctor from Tumakuru, entered and took the seat on the left hand side, near the driver.
The driver immediately started abusing him. He said, “Muduka, hogi hindagade seat nalli kuthko. Bus brake hakidre neenu sathogtiya (Old man, sit in the backside seat. If I apply brakes, you will die).” He also called the conductor and asked him to throw Shastry out. “I have seen many freedom fighters like you,” he said.
“I travel in KSRTC buses and sit on the front seat most of the time. No driver has ever behaved with me like this. I am a freedom fighter who participated in Satyagraha with Mahatma Gandhi during the Quit India movement. You should respect freedom fighters,” Shastry told him. He said he had been jailed for six months during the freedom struggle in Davangere.