NEW DELHI: Maharashtra transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik suspended state transport buses to Karnataka after pro-Kannada activists attacked an MSRTC bus in Chitradurga on Friday.
The activists targeted a bus travelling from Bengaluru to Mumbai, where they assaulted driver Bhaskar Jadhav. A police complaint has been lodged in Karnataka regarding this incident.
The minister detailed that the MSRTC bus (MH-14 KQ 7714) was attacked shortly after passing through Chitradurga. He said that bus services would remain suspended until the Karnataka government clarifies its position on the matter.
Meanwhile, a Karnataka state transport conductor was assaulted the same day near Belagavi for not speaking to a passenger in Marathi.
Authorities have arrested four individuals for the assault while the conductor also faces charges under the POCSO Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks.
The 51-year-old conductor, Mahadevappa Mallappa Hukkeri, recalled that a female passenger and her companion at Sulebhavi village spoke to him in Marathi. When he expressed his inability to understand Marathi and requested them to speak in Kannada, the situation escalated.
Hukkeri explained that the girl demanded he learn Marathi and subsequently, a crowd gathered and attacked him. He received treatment at Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences for minor injuries and is now stable.
On Saturday, pro-Kannada activists protested by blocking the Belagavi-Bagalkote road and burning effigies before being removed by police.
Additional protests occurred at Marihal police station, where activists condemned the alleged attack on the conductor and disputed the case against him. Police subsequently removed these protesters.