Karnataka: In a disturbing incident that unfolded on Friday, a bus driver and conductor of the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) allegedly faced assault by a group of youths. The altercation reportedly occurred around 12.30 pm near Sulebhavi following a fight over language in Belagavi. According to reports, a boy and girl who were on the semi-urban CBT-Sulebhavi bus threatened the conductor as he didn’t know Marathi language. This led to escalating tensions over the use of Marathi vs Kannada following which the youth called their accomplices and they attacked the conductor.
The KSRTC conductor, Mahadev Hukkeri spoke to ANI mentioning details about the incident, “A woman and a man were sitting in the bus, majority of the passengers in the bus were women, I was distributing tickets, in Karnataka, bus ride is free for women. The woman sitting with the man asked for two free tickets, I gave her one and asked, for whom do you want the second ticket, she pointed towards the man. But, I told them that in Karnataka, bus ride is not free for men.”
He further added, “Then they told me to speak in Marathi but I don’t know Marathi and asked them to speak to me in Kannada. 6-7 people in the bus attacked me. Once the bus was stopped, there were around 50 people there and they also beat me up.” There are speculations when the conductor went to file a police complaint, he was advised to compromise.
#WATCH | Karnataka: A KSRTC bus conductor beaten up allegedly for not speaking in Marathi, in Belagavi
---Advertisement---Mahadev Hukkeri, KSRTC conductor, says, ” …A woman and a man were sitting in the bus, majority of the passengers in the bus were women, I was distributing tickets, in… pic.twitter.com/YB2pAMVkIM
— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2025
The conductor has sustained internal injuries and the accused behind this ‘three individuals and a minor’ have been booked by the Police. The arrested accused, identified as Maruti Turumuri, Rahul Naidu, and Balu Gojagekar were remanded to 14 days of judicial custody by a court on Friday. Meanwhile, DCP Rohan Jagadhish visited Belagavi’s BIMS Hospital to check on the health of the conductor and assured appropriate action to be taken. However, a complaint was filed by the girl’s side later who alleged that the conductor passed indecent remarks on her.
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