A Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus being stolen is now passé. Online shoppers were flabbergasted when a ‘BMTC bus of 2015’, which claims to run ‘780 km per hour’, was available for Rs. 5 lakh on a website.

The ad was put up on September 22 in the commercial vehicles category and had 148 views. It was on the website till Friday afternoon; it was pulled down in the evening.

When The Hindu called the number given, the phone was answered by Monish, a first year pre-university student, who said that he had not put up the advertisement or tried to sell any item. He also claimed that he had no idea who posted the ad. “From the past two months, I have got about 30 calls enquiring about a BMTC bus. For a few days, I did not know what was happening and later learnt that someone had put my number on the website,” he said. He claimed that he did not have an account with the website and even tried to call the website, but could not get through.

His frantic mother also said that her son is innocent and it was the job of mischief mongers. “We were flooded with calls and even considered filing a complaint. But we do not want to get into legal hassles. So we just let it be.”

Representatives of the website said that the portal was similar to social networking sites where you could sell any product. But the terms and conditions clearly state that information that is “false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, misinformative (sic)” should not be posted.

BMTC officials said that they were unaware of the sale but officials would contact the company and decide what legal action can be taken against such a fraud.