KOLKATA:
A CSTC bus conductor beat up a young architect at the Ruby rotary on
Saturday morning for merely asking to be shown the new rate chart after
he was charged a higher fare.
Koushik Roy (34) suffered two
broken fingers and an injury under the right eye. Wife Moumita, who was
on the bus, could only watch in horror as the conductor, Bimal Barik,
punched him arou-nd. The other passengers finally came to his rescue,
thrashed the conductor and handed him to police.
Rogue
conductors in Kolkata do not spare even the blind and the elderly and
have been known to throw passengers out of moving buses if they dare
stand up to them.
Like on any other day, Teghoria residents
Koushik and Moumita boarded the CSTC bus on route MS-37 to the Ruby
Hospital crossing. "We take this route every morning to work. Over the
last few days, we noticed that conductors were charging different fares
for the same journey," said Moumita, who works with an outsourcing
firm.
On Saturday, the conductor sought Rs 17 for the couple’s
tickets. Roy asked for the fare chart. Other passengers also raised
their voice. "The conductor began a heated argument with my husband. He
started misbehaving with us and used slangs," Moumita said. "The
conductor went on saying ‘ Ami dekhe nebo ‘."
Just
as the bus reached Ruby crossing, the conductor hurriedly got off
before the couple. "When my husband was alighting, he dragged him by
the left hand, twisted it violently and punched him in the face," she
said. Other passengers stopped the bus and beat up Barik. Police
arrested him later.
Roy was admitted to Ruby Hospital with
fractures in the middle and ring fingers of his left hand. Barik has
been charged with assault.
Roger's Domain 