BENGALURU: “I couldn’t believe that the passengers in the bus just watched without coming to my rescue as I was being abused and beaten up,” said head of quality assurance at a software company, who was assaulted allegedly by a BMTC conductor, driver and driver of a Volvo bus.
Narrating his ordeal, Sandeep Tuppad said that the incident happened last week when he was returning home on the bus (route 328/1) from Domlur flyover to the tri-junction off Domlur Road.
He said he wanted to alight at Trinity Circle but missed getting down there. He told the conductor that he would get down at the Lifestyle bus stop. The conductor allegedly spoke rudely and asked him to get off the bus immediately. When Sandeep told him to mind his language, the conductor got angry and began to hit him, Sandeep said.
“I hit the conductor with my bag in self-defence and alighted. He too got out of the bus and attacked me with a sign board. The driver along with a Volvo bus driver too started manhandling me. The duo held me while the conductor Naveen Kumar assaulted me,” Sandeep said.
The trio then allegedly pushed him forcibly into the bus and threatened to take him to the police station for assault on government staff on duty.
“One passenger asked the conductor to stop it and also asked others to help. But all the other passengers looked the other way,” he said.
However, Sandeep managed to get down the bus at the Corporation Circle stop and hoped passersby would help him. But no one came to his rescue even as the bus crew tried to forcibly get him back into the bus, he alleged.
He somehow got off and went to Ulsoor Gate police station, from where he was asked to go to Ashoknagar station as the incident happened in that jurisdiction.
“I was so petrified that I didn’t even file an FIR, but got a Medico Legal Case registered at St Philomena’s Hospital. I did write a mail to the MD of BMTC,” he said.
Meanwhile, he took to Facebook and wrote about his ordeal. Several people shared similar experiences.