Shiv Sena (UBT) workers staged a protest and blackened a bus with Karnataka number plates in the Swargate area of Pune city after a Marathi-speaking bus driver was assaulted in Chitradurga. The driver was attacked for allegedly not speaking in Kannada.
DCP Smartana Patil said that the force was dispatched to control the situation immediately after they got the protest news. She said to ANI, DCP Smartana Patil says, "As soon as we got to know that Shiv Sena (UBT) workers were going to come here and do something, we immediately dispatched force. They were successful in spraying black colour on one bus. Not much damage has been done. The accused have been detained by the police, and legal action will follow... 4-5 people have been detained, but others will be identified soon on the basis of video recordings."
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has suspended its bus services to Karnataka after an attack on one of its buses occurred in Chitradurga, Karnataka, said Maharashtra's Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik. On Friday evening, an MSRTC bus travelling from Bengaluru to Mumbai was attacked by pro-Kannada demonstrators. After being attacked, Bhaskar Jadhav, the bus driver, suffered facial blackening.
Bus services would continue to be suspended till the Karnataka government provides guarantees about the safety of Maharashtra's transport employees and passengers, Minister Sarnaik said in response to the incident.
According to the minister's order, all state transport buses from Kolhapur to Karnataka are on indefinite pause, according to MSRTC Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Abhijit Bhosale.