 BEST conductor Raghunath GaikwadAround 9 pm last night, BEST conductor Raghunath Gaikwad (38) was almost beaten to death by a mob of 100 at Mahim bus depot. The reason: he allegedly roughed up five schoolgirls who were returning home after tuitions.
The children, who study at a school in Bandra, were headed for Mahim on BEST bus no 202, when the conductor forcibly pushed them off the bus at Mahim depot.
The five allege that the conductor grabbed their hair and pushed them off the bus. One of them even said he tried to pull up her uniform.
We travel by this bus every day and the conductor is always rude to us. When we were getting down yesterday, he started pushing us and then lifted my kameez, said a tearful Afsana Ahmed (13) (name changed).
On seeing Afsana cry, a mob of nearly 100 people gathered at the depot and attacked the conductor.
Another girl Hasina Ali (12) said, The conductor pulled my hair and dragged me all the way to the exit.
Saeed Ahmed, Afsanas father, has vowed never to send her daughter by a BEST bus.
I am shocked, and from now onwards, I will send her by school bus. I hope the guilty conductor is severely punished.
A non-cognizable offence has been registered against the conductor at Mahim police station.
We lodged a non-cognizable offence and let him go with a warning. BEST officials have also been intimated and they will conduct an inquiry, said a police official from Mahim police station.
However, in his statement, Gaikwad told the police that he did not misbehave or abuse the girls but only told them to go out from the front exit.
| 
