Hyderabad: A 58-year-old RTC driver suffered a heart attack while he was driving at Nalgonda on Sunday. Koppalu Vishnu started experiencing pain and immediately stopped the vehicle. He was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead. The driver’s colleagues alleged that Vishnu had applied for sick leave but his superior had refused it. Vishnu, 58, hailing from Chandur in Nalgonda district, was working as a driver at Nalgonda RTC depot.

He was scheduled to retire on Tuesday. As he was ill since some days, he approached the inspector seeking sick leave on Friday, but his application was rejected. He told his superiors that he would be retiring in a few days and requested him to grant leave. On Saturday also he submitted the same leave application which was earlier rejected and submitted it again, but it was rejected. On Saturday he and conductor Laxmikanth was on night out duty to Gundrapalli village, 45 km away. They started for Nalgonda early morning with six passengers.


When they reached the outskirts of Chandur, Vishnu complained of chest pain and stopped the bus. Laxmikanth called an ambulance and alerted RTC drivers in Chandur. They rushed to the spot and in the same bus drove Vishnu to a private hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Vishnu's colleagues drove with his body to the depot and staged a protest seeking action against the inspector and compensation for his family.

One of the drivers said that inspector Lavanya was behaving rudely towards employees and was rejecting leave applications, especially of those who were nearing retirement. They withdrew the protest only after the depot authorities gave them an assurance about compensation and other benefits. Police registered a case of suspicious death and handed over the body to the family after post-mortem. Vishnu is survived by his wife Leelavathi, son Venkanna and daughters Kavitha and Lalitha.