Bizarre Theft: Hearing & Speech Impaired Man Drives Away Bus From Chennai, Caught In Andhra Pradesh

Chennai: In a case that has left police and transport officials baffled, a hearing and speech impaired man from Odisha managed to drive away an air-conditioned Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) bus from one of the busiest transit zones in Chennai — and drove it nearly 175 kilometers away before being caught in Andhra Pradesh.

The theft, described by officials as one of the most bizarre incidents in recent memory, unfolded in the early hours of Thursday from a depot adjacent to the sprawling Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT), Koyambedu. The vehicle was a GPS-enabled, air-conditioned Route 200 bus, which operates between Madhavaram Intercity Bus Terminus and Tirupathi. The driver had on Wednesday night completed a routine trip and parked the bus in the ‘idle parking’ area near the CMBT depot.

When the regular driver returned on Thursday to begin services, he was stunned to find the bus missing. The matter was escalated to the depot’s branch manager, Ramsingh, and eventually reported to the police.

Sources said the key had been left on the bus’s dashboard, an all-too-common practice at the depot.

The Koyambedu Police quickly traced the bus using its GPS system. To their astonishment, the bus was already well out of Tamil Nadu — driving along the highways near Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. They alerted the Nellore police and stopped the vehicle during routine highway checks at around 6:30 p.m.

The man who drove away the bus was identified as Gnanaranjan Sahu, a 24-year-old from Cuttack, Odisha. The real twist came during interrogation — Sahu was found to be hearing and speech impaired. He communicated with police by writing on paper, explaining that he was a school dropout working in a private firm in Bengaluru. According to his written statement, he had come from Bengaluru, wandered into the CMBT depot, found the unattended bus with the key still inside, and decided — on a whim — to take it for a drive.

Sahu was produced before the jurisdictional court and remanded in custody.