Mysuru: Police are on the lookout for a man who stole a bus operated by the Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC). The bus was parked at Chincholi depot in Kalburgi district on Tuesday morning and CCTV footage shows a man walking up to it, and later driving it away, officials said.
The bus was later recovered from Tondur in Telangana, 31 km from Chincholi.
According to police, the bus was parked in the Chincholi bus depot on Monday night at 9 pm by driver Ayub Khan and conductor Erappa. The bus came from Bidar. The driver and conductor slept in the restroom at the bus depot and when they came to start the trip to Bidar in the morning, they found it was not there. While checking the CCTV footage they found a person drove the bus at 3.30 am towards Telangana.
Following a complaint, the Kalburgi district SP Isha Pant formed two police teams to trace the bus. The teams swung into action and recovered the bus from Tondur in Telangana.
“We were shocked as the bus was stolen from the stand itself is a bizarre incident,’’ Bidar depot 2 manager Raja Shekar said. “The bus stand has no watchman or gates. A thief using duplicate keys drove the bus as we filled diesel the previous day,” he added.
“Based on CCTV footage we found the thief drove a bus towards Telangana. The two police teams managed to find the bus abandoned in front of a temple in Tondur, Telangana ‘’ Pant said.
A case has been registered at Chincholi police station. “We have clues about the thief and would nab him soon,” she added.