KSRTC plays down Pee-Gate incident: ‘Drunk passenger was offloaded’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Karnataka State Road Transportation (KSRTC) on Friday issued a clarification on the recent report that a passenger urinated on a young woman in a non-AC sleeper bus on the Vijayapura-Mangaluru route. A senior division control ler of the KSRTC 's Mangaluru division, in a release, has termed the reports false and misleading.

"As soon as we received a complaint about a passenger urinating in one of our buses, we got into action, obtained statements of driver Santhosh Mathapati Bille and operator Umesh Kardi, who was on duty in vehicle number KA 19 F 3554 regarding the matter," he said.

From their statements it is found that the particular bus had unreserved passengers in berths No 3 and No 29. T he crew of t he bus gave a scheduled break at Kiresuru Hotel at 10.30 pm and had informed the passengers about the 15-20 minute break, the statement said.

"In this dinner break time, an unreserved passenger travelling in Berth No 29, who was intoxicated, instead of coming out of the bus went near berth No 3 and was found urinating on seat number 3. This action was witnessed by a female passenger who alerted the driver and conductor about it," he said. Immediately, the passenger was taken to task and the crew got him off the bus and left him near the hotel.

Berth No 3 was washed with water a nd wiped with a cloth by the driver and conductor and the female passenger was requested to travel in Berth No 9," he said. No police complaint was filed regarding this incident, the senior KSRTC official added.