Law students attack four MTC staff, flash strike on OMR hits commuters

Depot time keeper Ezhumalai (70), a retired government staff, Moorthy (53) and Selvam, both conductors, and a driver Ramesh were injured in the attack and were admitted to a private hospital.

On Wednesday morning, a student from Government Law College in Pudupakkam boarded the bus (route 102) at the Tidel park on OMR. When conductor Moorthy asked him to buy a ticket, the student showed a photograph of his bus pass on his smartphone. Moorthy refused to accept it instead of the ticket, leading to an argument between them. After the conductor asked him to get down from the bus, the student bought the ticket.

Around 11.30 pm, a group of law college students went to the SIPCOT bus depot and quarrelled with the time keeper Ezhumalai over the issue. Seeing this, Moorthy, Selvam and Ramesh tried to convince the students. But the students refused to listen and attacked them, and fled the spot.

Meanwhile, the news spread to the other drivers in the locality and all the buses in Kovalam, Kelambakkam, Siruseri were stopped, as the staff staged a protest near the SIPCOT depot. They said that law college students were often creating problems during their bus journey.

The Kelambakkam police tried to convince them but in vain. Later, office-bearers from transport employees’ union arrived at the spot and convinced the employees. Following this, the drivers began to operate the buses around 3.30 pm.

The Kelambakkam police have registered a case and trying to identify the students involved in the attack with the help of CCTV footage.

Many IT employees who were returning home from offices and the general public were affected due to the strike. “After work, we could not reach home as no buses were operated. All other means of transport were also affected due to the traffic,” said R Meena, an IT professional working at SIPCOT.