Woman conductor stripped

Mumbai: A woman bus conductor was on Wednesday allegedly beaten up and stripped by a 30-year-old passenger in Dombivli town following a heated altercation over boarding the bus from the front exit.

The MSRTC bus was on its way to Dombivili railway station when the accused ran with the moving bus and tried to board it near Dombivili Sahakari Bank from the front exit, police said.

The driver and the conductor objected to the passenger boarding the bus from the front door and instead asked him to take the rear entrance.

The 30-year-old Abhishek Singh, a resident of Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai, allegedly began abusing both of them after entering the bus. When the woman asked Singh to stop misbehaving, he allegedly pushed her and tore her clothes during the scuffle. A woman conductor from another bus tried helping the victim on hearing the commotion but the accused hit her as well.

Then some college students who were in the bus intervened and roughed up the accused and subsequently handed him over to Manpada police. He was arrested and charged under sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC, police said.