Bengaluru: A First Information Report (FIR) is yet to be registered in the fight between BMTC employees and traffic policemen in the city on July 8, though a complaint and counter-complaint have been filed in the case at the RMC Yard police station.
The two traffic policemen, who were involved in the incident, accuse a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation driver and a conductor of kidnapping and assaulting them, while the BMTC employees allege that they were assaulted by the high-handed traffic policemen, who were in civil clothes.
Senior police officers are sitting on both the complaints, confused as to how to pursue the cases as both the parties involved are government employees on duty.
BMTC Security and Vigilance officials, who conducted a departmental inquiry, admitted that it was a mistake that bus driver Shanmugam and conductor Manjunath drove the bus into the depot, instead of a police station. But the officials defended their employees, saying they did not the two men were policemen. “Why should the policemen assault the driver,” asked an official from squad.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Traffic (West Division) S. Girish told Deccan Chronicle that it was completely the mistake of the BMTC staff that despite the officers telling them they were policemen, the driver took them to the depot instead of the police station, only to get the support of other BMTC staffers to thrash the two cops.
“The two traffic policemen, Ramesh and Gangahanumaiah, were on duty conducting a drive against autorickshaws when they saw the bus being driven rashly and negligently. They questioned the driver and asked him to not park the bus at a particular spot. The driver then abused the policemen and escalated it into a quarrel,” he said. A complaint has been lodged and action will be taken against erring BMTC staffers, he said.
The incident occurred between 6 and 6.30 am on July 8 at the busy Goraguntepalya junction when the BMTC bus parked at a spot where the two traffic cops in plainclothes were conducting a special drive on autorickshaw parking menace. The cops asked the bus driver to move the vehicle and he asked the men in plainclothes to ask the maxi-cabs parked in front of the bus to move and then he would.
A heated argument ensued, ending with fisticuffs inside the bus. The passengers demanded that the bus be taken to a police station. The conductor locked the doors and the driver started moving the bus. But on the way, the driver drove the bus to the Summanahalli depot where he was joined by other BMTC staffers in allegedly assaulting two policemen.
Senior police officers from Kamashipalaya and Yeswanthpur traffic police rushed to the depot in their vehicles. After intense argument, both parties approached the RMC Yard police station to lodge their respective complaints.
Driver partially deaf
Driver Shanmugham, who was assaulted by the cops, had difficulty hearing and was discharged from the Intensive Care Unit on Friday, said a BMTC security and vigilance official.
