Thiruvananthapuram: As outrage spread across the state over the assault of some passengers by the staff of a Bengaluru-bound private bus from Kerala, police in the state have made more arrests.
The incident happened on Sunday, when a bus operated by Kallada Travels broke down near Haripad in Alappuzha district, and the passengers were left stranded by without the bus crew informing them about alternative travel arrangements.
Some of the passengers who complained were later assaulted by the staff of the bus company in Ernakulam, after the bus company had sent an alternative bus to transport the passengers.
One of the passengers in the bus, identified as Jacob Philip, took a video of the assault and uploaded it on social media, prompting police to rush to the scene. By then, three passengers were badly assaulted by the bus staff.
On Tuesday, three more bus staff were arrested, taking the total number of those arrested to seven. The owner of the bus company, Suresh Kallada has been asked to report to the police.
Two of the passengers who were assaulted and who managed to flee to Tamil Nadu, told local media that there were about 15 people in the gang that dragged them out of the bus at Ernakulam and assaulted them.
On social media, scores of people criticised the style of operation of interstate private bus companies, with many stating that the staff were downright rude if any complaints were raised about the service.
Private buses providing interstate services operate as ‘contract carriages’, and passengers feel they are fleeced by these operators with the tickets often priced as high as flight tickets.
Because of an acute shortage of travel options, hundreds of people from Kerala bound for Bengaluru and Chennai are forced to travel by these buses.
The demand for commuting options to Chennai and Bengaluru has shot up over the past decade and a half because tens of thousands of IT-sector workers from Kerala are based in the two cities and the carrying capacities on trains and flights operating from Kerala to these two cities have been woefully inadequate.
