A student at Shrishti College in Yelahanka, Bengaluru was travelling with her male friend in a local bus, when the conductor approached them and started abusing her friend for standing by her side in the ‘ladies-only’ section.
A brawl broke-out and the girl was unfortunately caught in the middle of it. Her friend fled the scene after he allegedly pushed the conductor to the ground.
She was locked in the bus, alone, opposite the Yelehanka police station for over an hour, because the conductor was allegedly ‘taking his anger out on her’. When she was released and wanted to file an FIR at the police station, they refused.
After her incident was shared on social media via Twitter and Facebook, the Deputy Chief Commissioner of Yelahanka contacted her and asked if she wanted to file an FIR.
I will not be filing this FIR because they (her family) feel that the repercussions could be dangerous to me or my fellow Srishti College community. Their arguments are valid and because I love and respect them I am standing by their decision. However, I will be consulting the chief of police about what actions should be taken.
Read her entire post of the incident below.
I was detained alone in a local BMTC bus (402B, KA8022) by the conductor (the man in the video), driver and a few police inspectors just OUTSIDE the NES, Yelahanka police station, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
I was coming home from college, like I usually do, when the conductor started to pick a fight with my north-eastern friend and began to abuse him for standing by my side in the middle section (lady’s section) of the bus. They had words and it led to them taking the scene outside where the conductor began to poke and push my friend who pushed back and made the conductor fall on the floor. That’s when a mob of people started forming around my friend thinking he as the attacker and so he began to get worried and ran away.
I stayed completely out of this as I, simply, just wanted to head home. The conductor, being pissed off about this decided to stop by the NES police station (one of the stops the bus goes through) and before I knew it, him and another cop were at my window asking for details about my friend. Reminding them that it was 7:30 in the evening and being a woman it’s against the law to take a woman to the station after 6:30pm, I refused to go with them. Especially without a lady constable present. My refusal angered the judgemental crowd around me and going by the looks of it they associated me with the likes of my friend (not in a good way) and so they began to curse and coax me to go with the police. I stood my ground as I wanted to get home as it was getting late. Before I knew it, the bus was empty and the people were standing outside the bus, this is when the conductor decided to LOCK ME INSIDE THE BUS.
When I ordered him to release me, he refused, and the police said he wouldn’t open the bus till my friend arrives at the police station! I was furious and started screaming at them and the passerby no (know) the street, but no one wanted to help. I was shocked how this was all taking place in the presence of police, outside a police station, on the main road!
Meanwhile I decided to phone for help. I first called my friend who they had kept me hostage for, then my parents and finally my friends who live nearby. I began to feel a sense of panic so I tried to kick the glass open, but it didn’t work, then I tried to get out throughout the Emergency Door, but that was JAMMED SHUT. I screamed for what was 45 minutes, but nobody would let me out, instead the driver reached in from the window and grabbed the key and fled. A passerby urged me to “give in” and play the dutiful “damsel in distress” till my friend arrives and they let me go. I couldn’t believe the level of stupidity people would give into because the police were standing by.
After almost an hour they opened the door and I was released because my friend had arrived at the police station. I marched inside to file an FIR against the conductor who took out his frustration on me, but no one wanted to listen. They DENIED me my right to an FIR till more of my friends arrived and pleaded them to do so. We finally got to speak to the senior inspector there, N. R. Nagaraj, but he don’t let me narrate my incident, instead kept asking me about the brawl that took place with my friend. Later he told me to take a piece of paper and write the FIR on that! After i did so, he began to convince/. discourage me out of it by telling me that it’s a long, tedious process “maybe 5..6.. 10 years… you’ll have to go to court everyday and whenever they call you.. why do you want to go through all that?” Instead they wanted to reach a compromise by telling me to drop the charges and in exchange the conductor would drop charges against my friend. This a*****e of a conductor who was sitting right next to me, no apology or guts to talk directly to my face was asking for money of his injuries, too!
Disgusted by the lack of respect and importance to women, I tore that piece of paper and told him that I will file my FIR later, with a criminal lawyer and I WILL GET JUSTICE. I couldn’t get me (my) case met so I’m sharing this in the hope that it’ll reach the right people, because today it was me, tomorrow it’s someone else’s wife or daughter! It could have been rape! WHY SHOULD HE GO FREE??
Please help me pass this along.
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