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Alleged Hijacker Throws A Fit In Court

A P Kamath

The man, who reportedly hijacked his own bus in a Canadian city, held its lone passenger hostage and drove into America while being chased by 15 police cars, is expected to be evaluated by a psychiatrist early this week.

On Friday, Vikram Menon began sobbing and shouting in a court in Bellingham near Seattle, repeatedly asserting he had meant no harm.

His wife has retained a local lawyer drove from Vancouver to help her husband. He has a teenaged son.

Joseph Bartek, the lawyer, said he could not comment on Menon since he had just been retained and since he is still gathering the facts. But he said he was certainly going to ask for a psychiatric assessment.

Menon, 37, was to have been arraigned in the Washington state court on charges of kidnapping, second-degree assault and eluding the police. Earlier, authorities believed he could be charged with attempted murder, since he had held the lone passenger who sought to calm him down on the bus in such a grip that she had fainted.

There is no clear account of the role played by the 43-year-old woman. Authorities have not released the transcript of her version but there are many stories about her in the media. Some reports believe that when she failed to persuade Menon to stop the bus, she pushed down the brakes, bringing the bus to a sudden halt on the middle of the road. There are also reports that earlier she had flashed a hand-written signal asking for help.

When the airport shuttle started from a hotel in the evening, there were two passengers. According to the woman passenger, Menon stopped the bus a few minutes later near a subway station, saying he wanted to go to the toilet.

A few minutes later, he returned and said one of the tires had gone flat and asked the male passenger to help him. When the man got off the bus, Menon jumped in and began driving it at 60 miles per hour. The passenger called the bus company and gave the news to bewildered employees who had no idea that Menon was still driving the bus.

He drove the bus across the open border, announcing to the bus company that the bus had been hijacked and he had been ordered by armed men to take it to America. The American border is about an hour's drive from Vancouver. The incident, which occurred last Wednesday, was widely covered by the media on both sides of the border.

The court proceedings were disrupted many times as Menon kept shouting that his life was in danger.

"They are going to kill me," he cried, even as his wife and judge repeatedly asked him to keep quiet.

The judge could not complete reading to Menon his rights when he began to yell, "Help me, help me."

"Sir, I don't want this happening," he repeatedly said. "I am in trouble."

When several efforts failed, the case was adjourned, and four men carried Menon off to the jail.

If found guilty, he faces 20 years in an American jail. It is not clear if Canada wants to press charges against him, and if there could be a consolidated trial.

His employer in Canada said Menon was a model worker, and that he served the firm diligently since he joined it over two years ago. But many in the Indian community, speaking on condition of anonymity, felt he had shown rage and frustrations in private, and they felt he needed treatment.

They said he was not happy in Canada and dreamt of going to America, believing that the opportunities for career advancement were far better there, and the racial discrimination was far lesser there than in Canada.

EARLIER REPORT:
Driver Hijacks His Own Bus

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