Duo beaten after bus tiff

 The Telegraph,December 1,2010

Durgapur, Nov. 30: A doctor and his brother were beaten up for objecting to a co-passenger keeping his bag on their laptop on a Durgapur-bound bus yesterday. 

Suman Sarkar, a doctor, and his brother Ayan were kicked and punched by the man and his four aides when they got off the bus at Durgapur’s City Centre terminus. 

Suman, 32, who is attached to a Bankura hospital, and Ayan, 28, had boarded the bus yesterday from the Esplanade depot in Calcutta to return home to Durgapur. Trouble started after a couple boarded the bus from Santragachhi. 

Ayan, a WBCS aspirant, said: “The man put his bag on my brother’s laptop, which was kept on the luggage rack above our seat. There was enough empty space on the rack and we requested him to shift his bag. The bag looked quite heavy and it could have damaged the laptop.”

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Ayan, who had accompanied Suman to Calcutta’s SSKM Hospital yesterday, alleged the man started arguing and refused to move his bag. 

He added: “We called the conductor. After some persuasion, the man removed his bag reluctantly but threatened to teach us a lesson once the bus reached Durgapur.”

As soon as the two brothers got off the bus at the City Centre terminus around 5.30pm, the man, in his 40s, and four of his aides surrounded them. “We asked them to let us go but suddenly, one of them hit me on my shoulder with an iron rod,” Ayan said. 

He said that as soon as he fell on the road, “another youth kicked me in the face”. Suman was also roughed up when he tried to save Ayan. 

Ayan said several people were present at the terminus but “none came to our rescue initially”. He said the attackers fled when some bystanders “finally stepped in after 10 minutes”.

The police from an outpost 500 metres from the terminus rushed to the spot but the attackers had fled by then.

Ayan said some residents identified one of the attackers as Tapas, who had a betel stall at the terminus. The brothers have lodged a complaint against Tapas. 

Ayan was taken to Durgapur subdivisional hospital, where doctors advised him to consult an eye specialist. “My eyes and jaws are paining. My brother has suffered an injury in his right hand after being hit with a rod,” Ayan said.