Drunk man in bus pretends to be psycho to scare passengers

Psycho -fever has come to haunt the state and certain unscrupulous elements have begun to take advantage of it.

With a ‘psycho’ killing three passengers in an RTC bus close on the heels of notorious criminal ‘Psycho’ Samba’s escape, it is all that seems to be in the minds of people.  Not helping the situation are people pretending to be psychos, as was done by a drunk man aboard the Ongole-Kanigiri RTC express bus on Sunday afternoon.

According to information reaching Prakasam district headquarters, Sunkara Koteswara Rao (29) of Darsi, who was in an inebriated condition, boarded the bus carrying 36 passengers at Podili around 2:30 p.m.

The conductor asked Koteswara Rao to take his seat, but he refused to do so. When the bus was about to reach Kanigiri, Rao picked up a quarrel with a passenger sitting on the window seat, asking him to vacate it. When passengers intervened and tried to pacify him, an enraged Rao threatened them saying he was the psycho.

Amid the ensuing fracas, a passenger informed the matter to the Kanigiri police over his cell phone. A police team intercepted the bus and surrounded it on the outskirts of Kanigiri. They questioned Rao before confirming that he had just pretended to be a psycho to frighten the passengers.

Meanwhile in Chittoor district, residents of villages bordering Nellore district are spending sleepless nights in fear of the ‘psycho’. With their anxiety heightened by intensive searches being conducted by armed policemen in the area, residents in these villages are shutting their doors early. Youths have also formed into vigilante groups to watch over the villages at night.

Though police have assured that the killer would be caught soon, the fear is not being stilled. Only on Saturday, a Maratha devotee was thrashed near Srikalahasti bus station by people who thought he was a psycho.