JOIN USLathi charge twice in Kolar; two sent to judicial custody
Twelve KSRTC buses were damaged in the violence that followed the protest in Chikkaballapur district by the Joint Committee of Trade Unions of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation on Thursday.
Tense situation prevailed in some of the taluks of Kolar district too. Sanitation staff took the opportunity to clean up the bus stands.
Lathi charge
A lady conductor who came for work as usual, at 10.30 am to the new bus stand in the City, following orders by her superiors, was verbally abused by a KSRTC staff member.
The police tried to arrest the employee accusing him of attempting to attack the police and pushed him into a jeep.
As the situation tensed up, Circle Inspector Jagadish jumped out of the jeep and started caning the protesters. Probationary PSIs and constables joined him and cleared the bus stand of the crowd. In the violence that ensued, the abuser escaped. Another employee, Srinivas Reddy, was arrested.Additional SP H R Bhagavan Das also arrived at the spot to take stock of the situation.
Evening ruckus
Police in the evening caned employees of the KSRTC who demanded release of employees who were arrested in the morning. They also handed two employees to judicial custody.
Hundreds gathered outside Gulpet police station in the afternoon and demanded that all arrested employees be released. The police, however, refused, saying a case would be booked against KSRTC staff who had verbally abused the lady conductor and attacked the driver at the new bus stand in the morning.
The employees tried to meet Srihari Baragur, the DSP, and other senior police officers.
In response, the police met the employees’ union leaders and KSRTC divisional officers. The leaders requested the police not to book cases against any of the arrested employees.
The police officers released four employees at 6 pm. But, they tried to take two employees, Manjunath and Mahesh, to the city police station in the jeep, saying they would be released there. Irked, the protesters blocked the way of the jeep. The police pacified the employees, who then made way for the vehicle but followed them all the way to the city police station.
The protesters now found that the police had diverted the route and taken the arrested employees to judicial custody.
The union leaders said they again followed the route of the police and went to Gulpet police station. But, just as they reached the station, the police started caning them.
They added that nine employees have been arrested since the start of the strike on Thursday morning. But the police have not verified the claim. Instead, they insist that four people were released in the evening and two had been taken to judicial custody.
Chikkaballapur
Six tyres were also punctured by miscreants on Venkatagiri Kote, Shidlaghatta Road and Avati in the taluk and in the villages near Chendoor in Bagepalli taluk.
Mallikarjunaiah, district transport control officer of KSRTC, told Deccan Herald that the damages caused a loss of Rs 2 lakh to KSRTC. “The protest has cost us about Rs 35 lakh in revenue. About 378 buses ply on the roads in the zone by 6 pm. Today, however, only 12 buses plied.