Gang claiming to be police hijack pvt bus with passengers

BENGALURU:A private bus with 42 passengers was hijacked by bike-borne men and locked inside a godown at Pattanagere in Rajarajeshwarinagar (Mysore Road) on Friday night. The men claimed they were police officials, thrashed the driver and drove the bus into a godown meant for storing seized vehicles. DCP West Ravi D Channannanavar said, “The bus (KA01,AG-636) belongs to Lama Travels operated from Kalasipalya. Around 10.30 pm, the men stopped the bus after forcing the driver to get down from the vehicle on Mysore Road.

Then they took the vehicle to Pattanagere area and 42 passengers who were travelling to Kannur in Kerala were forced to sit inside the bus for more than four hours. After receiving an alert, a team of policemen from Rajarajeshwarinagar police station rushed to the spot and nabbed two of the accused.” After verifying all details, police called the supervisor of Lama Travels and arranged for another driver. Around 3.30am the bus left the city. “Preliminary investigation revealed that the owner of Lama Travels had not paid EMI for a loan on the bus financed by Fullerton India.

This was in spite of notices sent to them. The accused belong to a private recovery agency and they planned to seize the bus en route. Four men came on two bikes to stop the moving bus and one of them drove it further,” he added. A team of 30 policemen surrounded the godown and nabbed two of the accused while two prime accused managed to escape. “A case has been filed against the finance company and the agency for illegally seizing the bus and cre at i n g panic among the passengers,” he said.