4 Arrested For Attacking Bus Conductor For Not Speaking In Marathi

Four people have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a conductor of the state-owned transport corporation bus for not replying to a passenger in Marathi, police said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday on the outskirts of the district headquarters town of Belagavi bordering Maharashtra, they said.

The conductor has also been booked under the POCSO Act, police said.

With tears in his eyes, the 51-year-old conductor Mahadevappa Mallappa Hukkeri on Friday told reporters that a female who boarded the bus with her male companion at Sulebhavi village spoke in Marathi. Hukkeri said he told her that he did not know Marathi and asked her to speak in Kannada.