DHARMAPURI: The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation has suspended a bus driver and a conductor for forcing a 59-year-old Dalit woman to get off the bus mid-way at an unsafe location for allegedly carrying beef.
The incident happened on Tuesday on a Harur-Krishnagiri bus around noon. The passenger, Panchalai, is a resident of Navalai village in Morappur block of Dharmapuri district.
According to sources, the bus crew acted on their own, and nobody had objected to the passenger or her luggage. The bus crew knew what she was carrying and they didn’t check her belongings before asking her to deboard the bus, sources said.
“On Tuesday, Panchalai was travelling to Navalai on the Krishnagiri-bound bus. During the journey, the conductor abruptly stopped the bus around 12.20pm and forced the woman to get off. It is suspected that the driver knew that the Scheduled Caste woman would buy beef from Harur, transport it in a vessel to her native Navalai village, and sell it for livelihood there.
Crew had no business prying into luggage: TNSTC MD
The woman tried to plead with the driver and the conductor to at least drop her off at the next bus stand, but they rejected her pleas and dropped her near Morappur in an unsafe area and left,” local sources said. The matter came to light after a group of people from Morappur demanded an explanation from the driver and the conductor over their conduct.
They questioned them as the bus halted at Morappur bus stand in the evening. After Morappur residents alleged that the driver and the conductor had discriminated against the woman as she belonged to the SC community, TNSTC officials from Harur arrived on the spot and held talks with the locals, sources added.
Speaking to TNIE, S Ponmudi, Managing Director of TNSTC (Salem), Dharmapuri Zone, said, “Driver N Sasikumar and conductor K Raghu have been suspended pending inquiry. The crew had no business to pry into the contents of the luggage and no complaints were raised or any suspicious behaviour was noted to warrant a check. The most important factor is that the driver and the conductor had deboarded an elderly passenger without considering her safety in an undesignated location. A comprehensive inquiry will be conducted.”