Bus stolen by drunk man tears through town, Telangana police in hot pursuit

The driver who witnessed this immediately alerted police and depot managers, and at least seven police vehicles chased it for 18 km, one police officer said. “During this chase, he hit 3-4 motorcycles, a police vehicle, and some students who were boarding another bus at Metpally, and almost ran over some pedestrians, before going off the road and crashing into a tree.”

Sambhaiah jumped out and allegedly tried to flee but was caught. He is stated to have been drunk. At least three people were admitted to hospital with minor injuries, but there were no deaths.

Police said that during the chase, NH 63, which is regularly used by school buses, had to be blocked.

This is the second such incident in the state this month. On the night of July 9, J Venkanna, a farm worker in Jangaon town, allegedly stole a TGSRTC bus after a tiff with his wife, driving it for 21 km before he lost control and crashed into a median. He allegedly got off the bus and sat on the road divider until police came and picked him up.

“He went to the Jangaon railway station first as he wanted to go to Tirupati. As there was no train, he came to the bus station to catch a bus but stopped to consume alcohol. He found the parked bus and began driving, thinking he was going to Tirupati,” sub-inspector M Bharat, investigating the case, said.

The two incidents have led the police to issue advisories to depots asking them to lock buses and deposit the keys safely at the depot. “Even if the next shift driver has already arrived, the keys must be handed over in person,’’ the official said.

There have been other incidents of people stealing buses to drive them wildly. In April 2019, two brothers — Syed Abed and Syed Zehad — stole a 45-seater bus from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station in Hyderabad and drove it to Nanded in Maharashtra. By the time police tracked them down, they had sold the bus to a scrap dealer for Rs 60,000 and had cut its cabin using gas-cutters. Only the partial remains of the vehicle’s chassis were found in a wooded area on the outskirts of Nanded.