MUMBAI, AUG 19: If you think you've heard it all, think again. The Azad Maidan police station today recovered a most unusal `stolen' item a BEST bus , plying on the 10 Ltd route from Ghatkopar to Hutatma Chowk.The man who tried to steal the bus (MMK 2462) from the Hutatma Chowk depot, did so under almost bizarre circumstances. Rajesh Singh (20) from the Bhavaninagar slum in Bhandup, was in the vicinity of Oval Maidan around 8am, asking for directions to get to Gateway of India. When he couldn't get a taxi, he asked a passer-by if there was a bus that he could take.Disinterested as any passer-by would be at such an hour, he simply waved in the general direction of where a 10 Ltd. bus was parked and said `take that.' Singh, following the advice to the letter, got into the driver's seat, started the bus and drove off.Bus driver Vilas Dangle had just parked the vehicle. All the passengers had got off, the conductor was inside the depot to fill in the log, and Dangle the driver was chatting with the Ticket Collector. Suddenly he saw the empty bus moving.Unsure of what was happening, he anyway ran behind the bus and further down the road hopped into a cab. In a hilarious re-enactment of a Hollywood chase, Dangle chased the bus from Oval Maidan to the University and finally managed to block Singh's path near the Prince of Wales Museum.In the meantime, Sub-inspector Tanaji Karpe from Azad Maidan police station had also caught up with the duo. While Dangle took over 10 Ltd again amidst curious stares all around from bystanders, Singh was escorted to the police station, with the BEST bus in tow.Chargesheeted, fined Rs 500 and imprisoned for six months, all on the same day, by mid-afternoon Singh, who confessed to taking the bus, was already in jail. According to the police, Singh is mentally sound and had in fact been a driver of heavy vehicles in the past. Thankfully, no one was hurt.An incident like this has occurred in Kalyan in the past and small towns are full of such stories, but it is the first time someone has tried to hijack an empty BEST bus in Mumbai. For about 10 minutes, Singh was driving a vehicle worth almost 23 lakh - pretty fancy even for Mumbai standards.
