Conduct‘or’ cruelty? Woman thrown out

In the latest incident on April 28, a woman was allegedly verbally abused, threatened, assaulted and pushed out of the bus by the conductor. The incident happened while the victim, Rituparna Ganguly, was travelling from Kempegowda Bus Station to ITPL by route number 335 A.

The city police have taken up the case after Rituparna lodged a complaint on Bengaluru city police’s Twitter handle on Sunday morning. The alleged harassment happened while Rituparna, a resident of ITPL, boarded the bus from Majestic. In her police complaint, the victim said, “The bus conductor, Shiv Kumar, came to check the ticket. When I showed him the pass, he accused me of using a pass for the wrong route. When I told him that I have been travelling on the same route with the same pass for over two years, he began insulting me and snatched away my pass. When I tried reasoning with him, the conductor verbally abused me, threatened to hit me and pushed me out of the bus.”

What angered Rituparna was none of her fellow passengers raised their voice. “When I asked few of the passengers individually they agreed with me and knew that I was right. But, nobody came for my help even when the conductor kept repeating his threats to hit me and throw me out of the bus,” stated Rituparna in her complaint.

After she filed the complaint the Central Division Police sought details from the victim, registered a case and begun investigations.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sandeep Patil, who took immediate note of the complaint, approached the victim on Sunday noon and sought a detailed report of the incident. He also assured the victim that appropriate action will be taken against the conductor.

Apart from the police, Rituparna had also lodged complaint at other forums such as BMTC Grievance Cell and an online consumer forum. She had also mailed the BMTC authorities demanding stern action against the rowdy conductor.

BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Kaur told Deccan Chronicle, “We have received the complaint about the alleged harassment meted out to a woman commuter by the conductor. Sandeep Patil had spoken to me about the incident. An inquest into the matter has been initiated. “We are inquiring about the incident and if the complaint was found true, a strict action will be taken against the bus conductor.”