The ATS team, following the arrest of Abdul Samad Siddibappa aka Abdul Samad Bhatkal, had visited his hometown Bhatkal recently to lay their hands on some ‘significant evidence’ that may well prove to be a catalyst in his release. They came, they saw, and they left, with some evidence but with a fair degree of haziness in it.
The ATS were told that Abdul Samad and his uncle Yaqoob had travelled to Bangalore from Bhatkal on February 13, the day the Pune German bakery blasts took place. In order to verify if this was true, the ATS came all the way to Bhatkal and met Ruwaifa Kola, travel agent, Kola Travels. The agent did admit that he had given the Bhatkal-Bangalore ticket to the duo on February 13 but maintained that he gives tickets in the name of his agency and not the customers. The ticket they had booked was of a KSRTC bus but again in their list of passengers who reserved their tickets, it was the name of the agency that figured instead of the names of the passengers. Nevertheless, Ruwaifa Kola gave a statement in writing to the ATS that he indeed gave Abdul Samad and his uncle the bus ticket for Bhatkal-Bangalore journey on February 13 evening.
The claim being made from Abdul Samad’s side would have got a huge boost had their names appeared on the list of the passengers who travelled in that KSRTC bus that night. However, the faulty ticket booking system may well now act as the thorn in the flesh of Abdul Samad and others, who feel he is innocent.
The fact that bus ticket bookings are being made without appropriate details being noted down is actually an issue of a greater concern. Abdul Samad case notwithstanding, the inappropriate booking method can lead to lack of transparency in various other things where a legal probe is involved. Take for instance the bus tragedy that took place in Chitradurga recently. About 30 people were charred to death in the gruesome mishap. In spite of the passenger list being put up officially by Air India, 12 bodies had to be buried unidentified. In a bus accident, if the bodies go charred beyond recognition, how are the authorities going to identify who the victims are when they do not even have the list of names of all the passengers who were on board?
The Chief Minister as well as R Ashok, State Transport Minister announced lakhs of rupees as compensation for the victims of KSRTC bus tragedy. How will the government identify as to who the deceased are in order to shell out the compensation? DNA samples can be a solution but what if claimants of the bodies are numbering hundreds?
Ticket booking agents book multiple tickets in single name more often than not. For instance, if five people in your family want to travel to Mysore- you, your wife, and three kids, and you book a ticket with the travel agents, nine out of ten times, they are likely to book a five-in-one sort of a ticket for you where maybe your name would feature and the number of passengers (5 in this case) may be mentioned or rounded off, and that’s it. The names of the other four passengers would not be there in the list of passengers travelling in the concerned bus. This again, is another instance which may complicate things during a legal probe.
“In case a family or a group wants to book tickets, we book tickets for everyone under one name or one representative of that group”, says Jaishanth, Divisional Transport Officer, KSRTC, Mangalore.
The travel agents admit that going the specific way is something that they would prefer to avoid. “We try to reduce the work as much as possible so instead of giving tickets for each passenger, we give one ticket for the entire group. There are no rules as such laid down by the Corporation that names of all the passengers have to be entered while issuing tickets” says Raghav Shetty, Ticket booking agent, KSRTC, Mangalore.
When asked as to how the authorities will identify the victims of a tragedy a la Chitradurga, he said “The families of those victims will take care of identification. If suppose such a mishap takes place involving our local city buses, what can authorities do? The same yardstick is applied here”, he says.
Jaishanth on the other hand preferred to go the DNA way. “As far as identification of unidentified bodies is concerned, medical tests and other investigations are carried out by the police. Yes it goes on to become a long process but that’s the way it is done in such a scenario”, he says.
The process, indeed is long, and complicated as well. It is time the authorities realise that a little bit of extra effort can solve many a problem, especially those that determine the destiny of many.
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