A conductor of a KSRTC bus in Bengaluru pushed a 16-year-old girl out of the bus allegedly for not having the correct bus pass.
The victim, identified as Bhoomika, is a student at Jyothi Kendriya Vidyalaya in Bengaluru’s Yelachenahalli. She had boarded the bus which was headed towards Kanakapura at around 3 pm in the evening on November 11. After the bus started moving, the conductor approached her. When she told him that she had a student pass, the conductor asked her to get a ticket. The conductor stated that such passes were not accepted on the bus. Bhoomika then requested the conductor to be let off at the next stop, however he refused and wanted her to deboard the bus at once, according to police.
When she didn’t get down right away, he allegedly pushed her out of the running bus. Bhoomika fell flat on her face and sustained severe injuries to her face, forehead and left knee. She reportedly also suffered broken teeth as a result of the impact.
People in the vicinity came to aid Bhoomika and rushed her to a nearby hospital. She later approached Konanakunte police and filed a complaint against the accused, who has been identified as Shivashankar, a bus conductor with the KSRTC who is attached to the Harohalli bus depot.
“We have registered an FIR under section 325 of the Indian Penal Code and have sent him a notice to appear for further investigation,” a police official from Konanakunte station told TNM. Section 325 of the IPC is punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt.
The victim, Bhoomika, a resident of Kanakapura Town, reportedly travels around 100 kilometers each day to and from college. She, like many other students, are dependent on the bus passes allocated for students. However, some conductors allegedly do not accept the passes in an effort to collect extra commission.
In an eerily similar incident which took place in Kerala on Monday, a 17-year-old girl was pushed off the bus by a conductor as she was getting down. She too had sustained multiple injuries and was taken to the hospital for further treatment.