PONDA: A group of primary school students were left terrified after an unknown assailant stopped their moving school bus and attacked the bus driver.
The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon when the bus driver, Eknath Kakodkar (52), was transporting around 30 students from Kendriya Vidyalaya from Curti to Borim in a Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) bus. When the bus reached Curti, the driver asked three people on a scooter to move it from the middle of the road to allow the bus to pass smoothly. The three individuals complied and moved their scooter to the roadside.
However, as the bus moved ahead, the three individuals chased it and intercepted it near the Curti Underpass. Two Hindi-speaking youths entered the bus driver’s cabin and attacked him with punches and kicks, before fleeing the scene.
The primary students who witnessed the assault were seen shouting and crying in terror. One student even alighted from the bus out of fear and went missing for some time.
The driver later filed a police complaint, and the police searched for the missing boy and handed him over to his family. Kakodkar sustained injuries on his chest and eye and was admitted to Ponda Subdistrict Hospital.
