Suresh Kallada fails to appear before police over Kerala bus attack, says he is unwell 
Kerala

Suresh Kallada fails to appear before police over Kerala bus attack, says he is unwell

Although Suresh Kallada, the MD of Kallada Tours and Travels Ltd has not been named in the FIR, the probe team wanted to question him.

Written by : TNM Staff

KR Suresh Kumar also known as Suresh Kallada, the Managing Director of Kallada Tours and Travels Limited has told the Kochi police that he cannot appear for questioning as he is unwell. A team lead by Thrikkakara Assistant Police Commissioner, Stuart Keeler had asked Suresh to appear before them in the case of assault of three passengers by Kallada staff.

The police have already arrested seven Kallada staff who had assaulted three passengers who had an altercation with them over a three-hour delay in their bus journey. Though Suresh Kallada has not been named in the police case, the probe team wanted to question him following a statement he had submitted. He has now been asked to submit his medical certificate.

In his statement, Suresh Kallada had said that his employees had only reacted to two assaults on them by the passengers. He said that the three passengers- Sachin, Ashkar and Ajay Ghosh- had attacked the bus staff when the bus had broken down near Haripad on Sunday night. He told the police that the trio had injured a staff member who is over 50 years old. While Sachin and Ashkar have maintained that there was a scuffle with the bus staff, they have denied injuring any staff member.

Suresh Kallada further alleged that the three passengers got down at the Kallada office in Vytilla and assaulted the staff on duty. This has been denied by all the three passengers who have said that they were dragged out of the bus when it reached Vytilla. Visuals posted by another passenger did show two of them being assaulted and dragged out of the bus.

“After the bus reached Vyttila, the passengers entered our office and assaulted staff on duty. It was not their fault that any of this happened,” alleged Suresh Kallada.

He also claimed that the retaliatory assault by his staff was regrettable as passengers were paramount to the service.

However, contrary to this assertion, many people have been writing on social media, pouring out their angst against the company, alleging that they too have faced rude behaviour from the staff of Kallada Travels.

Arrests in the case

37-year-old Giri Lal, who is a native of Kollam, 27-year-old Vishnu, who is a native of Alappuzha and 55-year-old Kumar, who is a native of Coimbatore were arrested on Tuesday.

The others who were arrested are Rajesh from Kollam, Anwarudeeen from Karakkal, Jayesh from Attingal and Jithin from Thrissur.

All the seven have been remanded to judicial custody. They have been charged under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 143 (unlawful assembly), 148 (rioting), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence commit­ted in prosecution of common object). These are in addition with other sections such as section 392 (robbery), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons).