Bus ferrying 54 migrants to Maharashtra seized

Rajkot: A private bus illegally ferrying 54 migrant workers from Gondal to Nandurbar in Maharashtra was seized by police at Mota Maika village on Rajkot-Gondal highway late on Saturday night.
Investigation revealed that the bus owner Nanji Viralia had taken a total of Rs 86,500 from the migrants to transport them to Nandurbar. Further, Viralia’s son Ashish who is into private bus operating business in Surat, also forged an inter-state travel permission letter of Surat district collectorate, in order to transport the migrants.
Police at the checkpost got suspicious seeing that no social distancing was maintained in the bus and stopped it for checking. After accosting the bus at Ribada crossroads, they found the permit paper from Surat district collector to be fake. “Instead of permission from Rajkot collector, it was from Surat administration office,” said police.
Cops also arrested bus driver Pankaj Solanki (39). Viralia and Ashish have been booked for forgery and other sections of IPC. A V Jadeja, sub-inspector with Gondal taluka police station, said, “The father-son duo had charged Rs 1,600 as Gondal-Nandurbar bus fare from each migrant. We have returned the money to the families.”
The migrants work either as farm labourers or in some local industries.
Recently, the bus driver had transported some people from Surat to their native village in Visavadar taluka of Junagadh district. It was after his return that Viralia told his son to arrange for transport of these families.
Later, the Gondal taluka mamlatdar arranged for official permission for these families to travel to Nandurbar and they started the journey in a state government bus.
The migrants were provided food on Saturday night and Sunday morning too. While leaving also, the administration team provided them dinner.