Three men with machetes boarded a BMTC bus with more than 70 passengers on board and stabbed a 45-year-old man as the bus was approaching Konappana Agrahara bus stand on Hosur Road around 9.20 a.m. on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses later told the police that one of the men confronted the victim, Suresh, and stabbed him before they could react. The attackers also terrorised passengers by brandishing machetes before fleeing. By then the bus had stopped, and the attackers managed to escape.
According to the police, Suresh who hails from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh was a resident of southeast Bengaluru. His attackers were family members. “We suspect he was murdered by his relatives over an internal dispute. Both Suresh and his relatives were past offenders who committed pick-pocketing and robberies in Kadapa,” said an officer.
After preliminary inquiries and information shared by the Andhra Pradesh police, the city police learnt that his relatives nurtured grudge against him as they suspected he had leaked information about their whereabouts to the police in his home town. They tracked him to Bengaluru and spotted him on Hosur Road on Wednesday.
Upon seeing his relatives, Suresh started running and jumped into a BMTC bus heading towards Chandapura. The men chased him into the bus confronted him inside and stabbed him to death. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.
“We have identified three relatives of Suresh and have launched a manhunt for the accused,” said Boralingaiah, DCP Southeast Division.
‘They bought tickets’
When three man jumped into the crowded BMTC bus, conductor R.P. Nadaf did not give them a second thought. “They bought tickets from me. I moved towards the front of the bus to issue tickets. Near the signal, I heard a man screaming “save me, save me” in Telugu.
Driver Sanjeev Shetty also heard screams and people asking him to stop and open the door. “The moment I opened the door panicked passengers literally jumped out of the bus. Even the three attackers got down from the bus and escaped,” said Mr. Shetty.
When the bus was emptied of all passengers, Nadaf saw a man lying in a pool of blood. “I almost fainted. I didn’t know how to react. I ran towards the traffic police and alerted him,” said Mr. Nadaf.
