Bus driver decamps with Assam-bound passengers' luggage in Telangana

Hyderabad, Nov 6: The driver and cleaner of a private bus made off with the luggage of 64 passengers who were on their way from Kerala to Assam and other places, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred late Friday night near Narketpally in Telangana's Nalgonda district.

When the bus belonging to a private operator had stopped at a hotel near Narketpally around 11 p.m., all the passengers got down. The driver and cleaner told them that they were going to change one of the tyres and asked them to have dinner. The passengers kept waiting but the duo did not return. The passengers were all migrant workers and their families from Bihar, Bengal, Assam, and Nepal. Left stranded and without their belongings, they approached Narketpally Police Station.

The passengers, working in Kerala, were going to their native places. They told police that they had paid Rs 3,500 each to the travel agent. The police booked a case and began investigations. Local MLA Cherumurthy Lingaiah made arrangements for the night halt of the stranded passengers at a function hall.