Thrissur: The permit of the ‘Kallada’ bus in which two passengers were attacked recently has been suspended. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) presided over by District Collector T V Anupama. RTA has suspended the permit of the bus carrying the registration number KL 45 H 6132.
The advocate representing the Kallada group had also attended the meeting held on Tuesday morning and explained the bus operator’s stand. Action had been taken against the staff members responsible for the attack and the police also had registered a case, the lawyer said at the meeting. RTA could not suspend the permit over the affair, argued the lawyer. He also said that the owner of the bus cannot be made an accused in the case. Another argument of the lawyer was that action could not be taken against the bus operator by lower officials when the case was before the High Court.
Considering these aspects, legal opinion was sought on the matter. After the opinion was received by evening, RTA decided to suspend the permit for one year. Kallada group proprietor Kallada Suresh was also summoned, but he did not attend the meeting.
The permit is being cancelled over an incident that took place on April 21 in a Kallada bus heading to Bengaluru from Thiruvananthapuram. Two passengers were reportedly thrashed inside the bus and offloaded in Kochi.
The Ernakulam regional transport office (RTO) transferred the case to the Irinjalakuda RTO, under which the bus was registered. However, the file was kept in the freezer.
Recently, the driver of another Kallada bus tried to harass a woman passenger belonging to Tamil Nadu inside the vehicle at Malappuram. When this incident came to the limelight, the earlier recommendation to suspend the permit received a fresh lease of life.
Among those who took part in the RTA meeting included the deputy transport commissioner, regional transport officer (RTO), Irinjalakuda joint RTO and the rural police superintendent.