A driver and a co-driver of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) were suspended and terminated from service respectively on June 5, after they halted their Delhi-bound bus for five extra minutes to allow two Muslim passengers to offer namaz on Sunday night.
Some others travelling on the air-conditioned ‘Janrath’ bus lodged a complaint with Deepak Chaudhary, UPSRTC’s regional manager for the Bareilly Zone. They alleged that, at the request of the Muslim passengers, the driver stopped the bus in an isolated place with the passengers getting down from the bus and offering namaz.
Other passengers on the bus suffered inconvenience, they said. The regional manager directed the assistant regional manager (ARM) of UPSRTC in Bareilly, Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava, to initiate an inquiry, which resulted in Krishna Pal Singh and co-driver Mohit Yadav, a contractual staff of UPSRTC, being terminated from service.
“I received a call that an AC bus from Bareilly depot to Delhi has been stopped and some people are offering namaz. A few passengers objected to it. I directed the ARM of UPSRTC, to immediately depart the bus and take stern action. The ARM suspended the driver, who is a permanent staff and the co-driver, who was on contract, his service being terminated,” said UPSRTC regional manager (Bareilly), Deepak Chaudhary.
