In a road rage incident, here on Thursday, two armed car-borne passengers opened fire at a bus driver on the Patiala-Chandigarh highway near Chmarheri village of the district.
In the preliminary reports, it is learnt that one of the miscreants fired twice with a pistol at the driver and one of the bullets hit into his thigh, leaving the driver seriously injured. Both fled towards Rajpura city after the incident.
The incident took place at around 4:45 pm when the bus driver, according to the assailants, didn’t give side to their car. The bus was carrying around 40 passengers. The sound of the gunshot was also recorded in the audio mic of a CCTV camera installed at a nearby car showroom.
The Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) bus (numbered PB 65 1990) was scheduled to Patiala from Mohali. The driver was identified as Harpreet Singh alias Sonu, a resident of local Bajwa Colony.
One of the passersby, Rashpinder Singh, who was witness of the whole episode, rushed the driver to the local Rajindra Hospital in his car. Rashpinder informed that two men in a white Swift car forcibly stopped the bus in front of him. He added that both of them had a war of words with the driver and when people intervened they returned to their vehicle. “But after some time, one of them came with a pistol and fired twice at the driver.”
He said the other passenger was also armed with a gun and he also came to shoot the driver; but both fled from the spot as many people rushed the spot after hearing the gunshots.
Harpreet, who was conscious at the hospital, said he had no enmity with the assailants and had seen both of them for the first time. Meanwhile, a case was registered under Sections 307, 341 and 34 of the IPC and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act at Patiala Sadar police station. SHO Janpal Singh said they had registered the case on the behalf of victims’ statement and investigations were on to nab the culprits.
