Bengaluru: Techie flashes airgun at bus driver, held

BENGALURU: A software engineer, who allegedly pointed an airgun at a KSRTC bus driver and threatened him, was thrashed by the public and handed over to the police near Bidadi on Sunday morning. The accused, Sathvik C., works as a software engineer in a company in Bengaluru.

The incident took place near Kothi Anjaneya Swamy Temple on Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway near Bidadi around 8.30 am on Sunday. It is alleged that the KSRTC bus going from the city to Madikeri not giving way to Sathvik’s Hyundai i20 car (KA-41-MA-5269) led to the incident.

Sathvik and his friends Mithun and Venkat were heading to Srirangapatna in Mandya for a fun trip. While on the road, Sathvik was driving rashly and first tried to overtake a car.

After that, he attempted to go past the KSRTC bus. As the bus driver,
Vishwanath, did not make way for the car, Sathvik kept honking and it continued for a few kilometers.

When the bus stopped at Kothi Anjaneya Swamy Temple to drop a passenger, Sathvik allegedly blocked the bus by parking his car right in front of it. He pulled out an airgun and threatened the bus driver.

Over 50 passengers in the bus, who thought it was a real gun, got down and surrounded the car. But Sathvik, who was allegedly drunk, hurled abuses at them.

As the passengers tried to pull him out of the car, he closed all the windows and refused to get out. By then, over 200 people had gathered at the spot. Some from the crowd deflated the tyres, while others smashed the windshield with helmets. When Sathvik and his friends had no option but to get out of the car, people thrashed them and handed them over to the police.

Both Sathvik and bus driver Vishwanath have filed police complaints against each other. Based on Vishwanath’s complaint, Sathvik was arrested under IPC Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty).

Vishwanath said that he would have allowed the car to overtake if he were in a position to do so. “There were other vehicles on the road and I could not make way for the car. But, the car driver blocked my way and flashed a pistol threatening me.”

However, the Bidadi police, who have registered the cases, said that it was an airgun and not a real pistol. “Sathvik, who hails from Madikeri, said he used the airgun to scare animals in his estate. But flashing the gun amounts to criminal intimidation. We have sent the gun for forensic tests. If the reports suggest that the weapon could be dangerous to human lives, he will be booked under the Arms Act,” the police said.