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Journalism of Courage
A US woman, an actress by profession, has alleged that the driver and conductor of a state transport bus “misbehaved” with her when she was travelling from Somnath to Rajkot in November 2015. The complaint, forwarded to the Rajkot division of the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) from the chief minister’s office in Gandhinagar, purportedly filed by an American woman, has stirred up a debate among Rajkot authorities on how to handle it, since there is no trace of the complainant. The woman’s name bears a close resemblance to that of a Bollywood actor, leading to further questions.
“The CMO has forwarded the complaint, said to have been filed by a US national and an actress by profession, to our office. She has complained that the conductor and driver of our bus misbehaved with her while she was travelling aboard a Somnath-Rajkot bound bus on November 26 last year,” Dinesh Jethva, Rajkot divisional controller of the GSRTC, confirmed to The Indian Express on Thursday. The complaint, written in English, also alleges that the divisional controller (DC) of Rajkot also misbehaved with her. The CMO forwarded the complaint to the Rajkot DC and Rajkot city police a few days ago. The office of the commissioner of police of Rajkot, in turn, has forwarded the complaint to Women’s Police Station.
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However, police said that it was for the GSRTC to act. “We have received the complaint of the woman, stating that the behaviour of the driver and conductor was improper. But it is for the GSRTC to take appropriate action. No FIR has been filed in this connection,” police sub-inspector N J Trivedi of Women’s Police Station said.
On the other hand, Rajkot DC said he suspected the authenticity of the complaint. “The complaint is ridden with grammatical errors and inspires suspicion about its authenticity. Secondly, no foreigner or anybody with that name (name withheld) either contacted or met me on November 26. The driver and conductor of the bus concerned have also given their statements saying no foreigner travelled with them on that date. We suspect this could be a mischief,” said Jethva.
However, the DC said that they were cooperating with police. “We submitted our call details and work diary to the police. We have also submitted statements of the conductor and the driver of the bus to the police,” Jethva added. CMO officials didn’t respond to our calls.
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