A bus belonging to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) parked in the Mattuthavani Integrated Bus stand here went missing in the early hours of Friday. However, within hours, the bus was found abandoned at Tirumancholai in nearby Sivaganga district.
The bus belonging to Virudhunagar region of the TNSTC had arrived from Shencottah and was parked on Platform No. 5 past midnight on Thursday.
Driver N. Thangamarimuthu (45) of Rajapalayam and conductor K. Pandithurai (49) of Vasudevanallur in Tirunelveli district had gone to the crew room in the bus stand for taking rest as the bus was scheduled to leave for Shencottah only at 5 a.m., the police said.
On return to the platform at 4.30 a.m., the crew members were shocked to see the bus missing from the bay.
After searching the bus stand, they alerted the police in the outpost. The city police, in turn, alerted neighbouring districts.
Meanwhile, the ticket boy at the toll gate, run by Madurai Corporation, noticed the bus going out at around 4 a.m.
“One of our boys had seen the bus. All the lights inside the vehicle were switched off because there were no passengers. It looked like that only the driver was in it,” one of them said.
When the ticket boy asked about the vehicle leaving the bus stand, the driver had reportedly told him that he was taking it to the depot for refuelling, he added.
A couple of hours later, the Sivaganga police identified the bus abandoned in Tirumancholai, some 30 km away from the bus stand.
Forensic experts lifted fingerprints from the vehicle and it was taken back to the city, where the crew members and senior TNSTC officials were enquired. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) R. Jayanthi said the bus did not have key for ignition. “Pressing of a button was all needed to start the engine,” she said.
TNSTC crew said that only those buses that were added to the fleet in recent times had provision for ignition keys. The police suspect that miscreants could have played a prank or some disgruntled employee of TNSTC could be behind it. The bus was intact, the police said.
