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Woman conductor bites students as spat over bus pass gets out of hand

 1.Woman conductor, Aruna, argues with a traffic policeman at Kammagondanahalli on Thursday. 2.A student shows the bitemarks. 3. The conductor, after she fell down during the scuffle with the students. 

An argument over returning the bus pass ended with a woman conductor biting the hands of two students and both the sides going to the police with conflicting claims. The incident took place near Kammagondanahalli off Jalahalli, north Bengaluru, on Thursday.

Punith Gowda, who is pursuing diploma in engineering, and his classmates Guru Praveen and Pavan were travelling to college on a BMTC bus plying between Peenya 2nd stage and Yelahanka around 8.30 am. The bus conductor is Aruna, who is attached to the BMTC’s depot-9 in Peenya. 

As his destination neared, Gowda stood near the door to get down at Kammagondanahalli. Aruna asked him to stay away from the door. He replied that he was going to alight at the next stop. The conductor walked up to him and asked for his bus pass. When Gowda took out the pass and showed it to her, Aruna reportedly snatched it and kept it in her pocket. 

Just before his destination arrived, the student asked the conductor to return the pass. But she told him to collect it at the bus depot. Gowda got angry and started arguing with her. He demanded why she was refusing to return the pass immediately. At this juncture, his friends, Praveen and Pavan, joined him and asked Aruna to return the pass. 

Meanwhile, the bus reached Kammagondanahalli. The students alighted from the bus but kept demanding the return of the pass. The spat got out of hand when the students reportedly pushed the conductor and snatched the pass. Aruna fell down, and in retaliation, bit the hands of Praveen and Pavan. 

Personnel from the jurisdictional Jalahalli traffic police station rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the conductor, but she argued with them and tried to assault the students. The traffic personnel alerted their counterparts from the Gangammanagudi police station. 

Another team of policemen came and took the conductor as well as the students to the police station. Gowda and Aruna filed complaints against each other. A senior police officer said that Aruna accused the students of “abusing and manhandling” her. She also claimed that Gowda was travelling on the wrong route as per his bus pass. Gowda stated that the conductor refused to return his bus pass and asked him to collect it at the bus depot for “no fault” of his. The police are investigating both the claims. 

The officer said the conductor was known to be “short-tempered” and would often pick an argument with others for “silly reasons”.