Amid language row, minor's kin to drop Pocso case against conductor

The family of the 17-year-old who accused a bus conductor, at the centre of the latest flare up in the Karnataka-Maharashtra language dispute, of misbehaving with her on board a Karnataka state bus issued a video statement on Tuesday withdrawing their complaint filed under the Pocso Act.

- Hirekop Rajan Samuel

BELAGAVI: The family of the 17-year-old who accused a bus conductor, at the centre of the latest flare up in the Karnataka-Maharashtra language dispute, of misbehaving with her on board a Karnataka state bus issued a video statement on Tuesday withdrawing their complaint filed under the Pocso Act.

In the video statement, purportedly released by the girl's family, a woman, believed to be the girl's mother said that an altercation happened over a bus ticket but it was being falsely projected as a language dispute.

"We are also affectionate about Kannada, there is no discrimination in this. Unnecessarily false propaganda is being done in the name of Kannada and Marathi," she said in the video. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

On Friday, four people were arrested for allegedly assaulting the conductor, Mahadevappa Hukkeri, of the state-owned transport corporation bus for not replying to a passenger in Marathi. Later, a counter complaint was filed by the minor girl alleging that the bus conductor misbehaved with her based on which a case under Protection for Children Under the Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act was registered against the conductor.