DTC bus driver beaten to death in Rohini road rage

A bus driver in Delhi was killed in a road rage incident after an argument with a car driver escalated to violence; one attacker has been arrested.

A 27-year-old bus driver died after around four people allegedly thrashed him in a road rage incident in northwest Delhi’s Rohini Sector 20 late Saturday night. Police said a bystander who tried to intervene and rescue the victim, also suffered injuries. One of the attackers has been arrested.

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According to police, at around 11pm on Saturday, a dispute took place between the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus driver Vikas (single name) and an Alto car driver over giving passage on the congested road during a wedding procession outside a banquet hall at Shiv Chowk. Immediately after the argument, the car driver called his relatives, who assaulted Vikas.

A bystander, Suraj, who attempted to intervene, also sustained injuries. Both were taken to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial hospital, from where Vikas was referred to Safdarjung Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment on Sunday morning, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Rajiv Ranjan said.

Vikas was a native of Jasour Kheri village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district.

After his death, several DTC employees held a protest on Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) and blocked the stretch with buses, leading to heavy traffic congestion on the arterial corridor. The DTC employees demanded justice for Vikas and safety and security assurances from the department’s senior officers.

“On the complaint of the bus’s conductor, Umesh,36, we registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and took up the probe. Investigators identified all the four people involved in the attack and arrested one of them named Rahul, who is a private sanitation worker,” said DCP Ranjan.

Umesh told HT that the DTC electric bus was heading towards the local shuttle through a congested “one-way” road. The Alto car was moving on the same road. An altercation started when the car driver stopped the car in the middle of the road and refused to give passage, Umesh said.

The car driver is also a sanitation worker in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), at least two police officers aware of the case said.

“He was with his wife and climbed the bus from the driver’s side during the argument. He then called his relatives and three people arrived soon. All four dragged the driver down from the bus, kicked and punched him. A bystander and I tried to rescue Vikas. The attackers assaulted the bystander also. They fled when Vikas became unconscious after the assault,” the conductor added.

Vikas’s relatives told police that he is survived by his father and a sister. He had joined DTC as a driver around two years ago.

DTC Karamchari Ekta Union, in a statement, said: “Some drunk wedding party members beat the driver so badly that he died. The car driver could have blown a horn to take the side. The union demands compensation to the driver’s family and punishment to the culprits.”

Lalit Chaudhary, the union president said that buses have cameras and panic buttons for public safety, but no arrangements are in place for employees’ safety. “Job security is already lacking, but even life security is gone. The public has become so violent that they don’t hesitate to take someone’s life. The government should provide him with a compensation of ₹1 crore. The union demands that police administration takes the strictest possible action against all those involved in this act and ensure justice for the family of the deceased,” Chaudhary said.