Patna, Jan. 6: Residents blocked Bypass Road near Changar area under Ram Krishna Nagar police station after Satyendra Kumar Sharma, a resident of the area was killed as a bus going towards Hajipur hit him.
The incident took place in the morning hours when the man was standing by the roadside waiting for an auto rickshaw.
The speeding bus ran over the man, killing him on the spot, and moved on. Following this, the residents of the area completely blocked the Bypass Road for five hours demanding the immediate arrest of the driver and compensation for the deceased’s family.
The mob smashed the windscreens of several vehicles in the process, fought with drivers of heavy vehicles and indulged in pelting stones and lighting fires to continue with the road blockade.
The police had to use a lot of force to disperse the crowd. As many as three to four dozen tear gas shells were fired for the same.
The deceased is a native of the Islampur area of Nalanda who used to live in Changar with his brother-in-law. He was a daily wage labourer.
Cops from four police stations including Ram Krishna Nagar, Jakanpur, Kankarbagh and Patrakar Nagar reached the spot to tackle the crowd. City superintendent of police Manu Maharaj reached the spot in a bid to pacify them.
Later, the police managed to arrest the driver of the bus. He has been identified as Akhilesh Kumar.
Locals said heavy vehicles were always a problem on this road. “They tend to drive very fast resulting in such accidents. They just don’t bother about the people standing by the road side. The man was standing at the side of the road, but this driver was driving the vehicle so fast that he lost control over for a few seconds, which led to the accident. On several occasions in the past it has been found out that the drivers are drunk while driving,” a resident of the area said.
The police said the bus driver had been caught and the same was told to the mob after which they cleared the blockade.
“The people agreed to lift the blockade after the driver was arrested,” a police officer said.
