Family withdraws POCSO complaint againt Belagavi bus conductor, says ticket issue became language row

BELAGAVI: Days after a case was registered under the POCSO Act against NWKRTC bus conductor Mahadevappa Hukkeri, the family of the complainant has decided to withdraw the case.

In a self-made video, the family, including the complainant’s mother, said they too are Kannadigas and the issue had turned into a Kannada-Marathi language row. Stating that they are withdrawing the complaint, the mother of the minor girl requested that the issue should not be complicated any further.

The complainant’s mother told Public TV, “My son and daughter had gone to a medical store in Balekundri and a dispute arose over the tickets when they were returning. Needlessly, this has become a Karnataka-Maharashtra and Kannada-Marathi issue. We speak Marathi at home, but we are Kannadigas. We are pained by the developments and withdrew the complaint on our own volition and there was no pressure on us”.

Bus conductor Mahadevappa Hukkeri is undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Further, she said, “We want peace and bus services between the two states should resume as normal. While issuing tickets, my daughter said she doesn’t know Kannada and the conductor told her to learn the language. We want to live peacefully and hence withdrew the complaint”.

Reacting to the issue, Police Commissioner Iada Martin Marbaniang said, “The POCSO case was registered at the Marihal police station a couple of days ago. Since it is a sensitive issue, I have changed the investigating officer and handed over the probe to an ACP-level officer. The sub-inspector has also been shifted out. In the next few days, we will know the truth in the case and already the police have recorded the statements of the passengers who were on that bus and taken CCTV footage”.

Further, he said, “I came to know about the video released by the family. I will examine that too and whatever comes out of the investigation”.

Last Friday, bus conductor Mahadevappa Hukkeri asked two siblings, who were travelling on the bus plying between Belagavi and Sulebhavi, to purchase tickets. The siblings, speaking in Marathi, replied that they don’t know Kannada.

All of a sudden, the conductor was thrashed and kicked, leaving him badly injured. After a video of the attack was shared widely on social media, the police arrested five people in connection with the attack.