Shivakumar held: Bus service halted in 2 Karnataka towns
Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Tuesday night suspended its route service through Ramanagara and Kanakapura towns in the state’s southern region after miscreants stoned and damaged four buses in protest against the arrest of Congress legislator D.K. Shivakumar by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi, an official said.
“We have suspended the service for the night in Ramanagara and Kanakapura on the Bengaluru-Mysuru route after protesters turned unruly and damaged four of our route buses by stoning their glass panes in both towns. Passengers were evacuated quickly to prevent injury,” a KSRTC official told IANS.
Hundreds of party cadres and supporters of Shivakumar staged angry protests and blocked the vehicular traffic on the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru state highway and condemned the ruling BJP in the state and at the Centre for the alleged misuse of the investigation agencies against the opposition leaders.
“The service will remain suspended till normalcy is restored and the police ensure the safety of the passengers and security of our buses and staff,” asserted the official.
Meanwhile, the police have stepped up security at bus terminals, railway stations and at vital installations across the city to prevent any untoward incident from angry protesters and supporters of Shivakumar.
“We have deployed one platoon of armed police at the ED’s zonal office in the city central as a precautionary measure to prevent any attack on it or its staff by protestors or mobs,” a police official told IANS.
Shivakumar, 57, represents the Kanakapura Assembly segment, about 60km southwest from Bengaluru and his younger brother D.K. Suresh is the Lok Sabha member from the Bangalore Rural constituency and the party’s lone winner in the recent parliamentary elections from the state.