Mangaluru: Police have arrested 5 bus drivers on charges of damaging public property when the accused drove their bus over the lane dividers installed by the police to maintain traffic at Jyoti bus stop, on Wednesday. Of the arrested, 3 are K.S.R.T.C. bus drivers and the remaining two are private bus drivers.

The arrested have been identified as Channappagowda and Vijay (private bus drivers), Ramesh, Shivappa Hanumanta Hugar and Koragappa (K.S.R.T.C. bus drivers). They have been presented before the court and have been ordered for judicial custody.

Traffic police had installed lane dividers at various places in the city a month back to facilitate proper traffic movement and to make sure the vehicles follow discipline.

This installation reduced the tendency of motorists idling their vehicles haphazardly on the road. The police observed that the bus drivers were attempting to destroy the dividers by running them down with the bus.

In this backdrop, an operation was conducted under the direction of the police commissioner T.R. Suresh and with the guidance of DCP Hanumant Raya and DCP Uma Prashanth.