Teenage Girl Jumps off Speeding Bus to Foil Molestation, Dies on the Spot

NEW DELHI: A gruesome incident occurred on the Mogha-Kotakapura bypass road on Wednesday evening, when a 14 year old girl and her 35 year old mother were made to jump from a speeding bus in order to protect their modesty.

The girl died on the spot.

Class 9 student, Arshdeep Kaur, her mother Shinder kaur, and 14 year old brother Akashdeep Kaur, were on their way to Guruser Kothe village in a private bus operated by Orbit bus service when some youths started passing lewd remarks and tried to molest the young girl. The conductor of the bus, instead of stopping the rowdy youths, joined them when the women asked him for help.

There were a few people in the bus at the time in the bus, but no one came forward to help when the victims raised an alarm. Shinder Kaur reportedly asked the driver to stop the bus, but he increased the speed instead.

In a desperate attempt to save themselves the mother-daughter duo jumped off the speeding bus. The girl died immediately and the mother was seriously injured. She is currently in hospital.

The horrible incident has been condemned far and wide with Congress leaders asking for the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister’s resignation as the bus company Orbit is owned by the Badals. Prakash Singh Badal admitted that he owns the bus company and assured reporters that the accused will be arrested soon.

Women activists too termed the crime as gross neglect on the part of the operator, and held them equally responsible for the incident as the molestors in the bus. Talking to The Citizen, Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All India Progressive Women Association (AIPWA) said, “This is a horrible incident and again a reminder of the sorry state of our transport system for public which is still unsafe despite occurrence of like incidents in the past. Crimes like these deter women from using public transport and instil fear and distrust in them.”

Criticising Deputy CM of the State, Sukhbir Singh Badal, owner of Orbit bus service, Krishnan demanded full accountability.

“Whatever happened in that bus should be seen as a case of sexual harassment at the workplace and should be treated as such. Just as Uber was made responsible for the rape of a passenger, likewise the operator of the concerned bus too should resign and accept full responsibility of incident.”

“The owners can’t shrug off their responsibility for such horrible crimes just because they were not directly complicit,” she added.

The driver and the conductor, who had fled the crime scene then, have been arrested. The hunt is still on for the youths.