Coronavirus in Mumbai: Bombay HC staff manhandled, not allowed to board BEST bus

Days after the BEST extended its facility for ferrying employees of the Bombay High Court, a 48-year-old HC staff was allegedly manhandled on Thursday morning at Titwala. The man, a clerk in the government pleader's office, was allegedly manhandled by BEST workers as he was trying to board the bus.

The man - Ganesh Kanade, a resident of Titwala, was manhandled by four BEST workers on early Thursday morning, while he was on his way to HC.

According to Kanade, he was standing at Titwala bus stop, awaiting a bus for Mumbai. "Four separate buses were stationed near the bus stop but none allowed me to board. They claimed that they were reserved only for BMC, Hospital and Police personnel and not for anyone other," Kanade said.

"Later, one another bus halted at the bus stop and only four workers were in it. I tried to enter the bus by showing my government ID card but I was disallowed from boarding it. I even showed them the notification that stated BEST facilities were extended for HC staff but they refused to ferry me," Kanade added.

Notably, the HC has last week notified on its website that the BEST services have been extended even for HC staff and also for the staffers of the government pleader's office.

"These four men were not speaking properly and when I told them that I would lodge a complaint against them and tried to click their pictures, one of them tried to snatch my cell phone and manhandled me. I was even abused," the clerk, alleged.

Subsequently, he was asked to step down of the bus and the four left without letting him in. But he was told that the ones who misbehaved with him had nothing to do with BEST.

"I was told that these men were not the workers of BEST but of some other government department. They assured me that action would be taken against all of them and the concerned authorities have been informed of the issue," Kanade said.

Soon after the incident, Kanade then did not wait for some BEST bus but took a state transport (ST) bus to reach Bombay HC.

Meanwhile, Manoj Varade, the spokesperson for BEST said, "Assaulting or misbehaving with a passenger would not be tolerated. We will take stringent action against the men, if they belong to BEST. But for that, the aggrieved person will have to lodge a proper complaint and the same would be dealt by our concerned authorities."