Greater Noida bus fire: Booking manager held over ignored warnings; three more victims identified
Greater Noida police on Friday arrested the booking manager of Raj Kalpana Travels, the operator of a bus that burst into flames near the Noida International Airport on the night of September 23, killing nine passengers. The arrest followed an analysis of call detail records (CDRs), which investigators said showed that passengers had telephoned the manager to raise concerns about smoke and fire before the blaze.
CDRs are telephone records that show the calls made and received by a number, and are routinely used by investigators to establish contact between two parties. According to a police officer, the records indicate that passengers alerted the manager, identified as Vikas Kumar, 42, a resident of Kanpur, but he did not act on the warning. He has been booked for negligence. The police have not said whether he has made a statement or engaged a lawyer.
The bus, which was carrying around 35 passengers and was headed to Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, was about five kilometres from the Noida International Airport in Jewar when the fire broke out.
According to the first information report (FIR) registered at the Jewar police station on a complaint by a survivor, passengers noticed a burning smell coming from the driver's cabin around 11.30 p.m. They repeatedly asked the crew to stop the vehicle. The driver, however, dismissed the smell as a common occurrence and did not stop to inspect the bus, the FIR states.
Before Friday's arrest, the police had taken two drivers and a conductor into custody in connection with the case. All four accused were produced before the District and Sessions Court in Surajpur on Friday and were remanded in 14 days' judicial custody, meaning they will remain in jail while the investigation continues. Breathalyser tests conducted on the drivers and the conductor returned negative results, the police said.
On Friday, three more victims of the fire were identified and their bodies were handed over to their families. A senior officer said the bodies were severely burnt and were identified through DNA tests, along with verification of physical features by relatives. A mother and her son were among those identified, the police said.
The investigation is continuing. Officers said they are examining the sequence of events, the condition of the vehicle, and the response of the crew and the operator's staff. Under Indian law, all those arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the case will be decided by a court on the basis of evidence.
The deaths have drawn fresh attention to passenger safety in long-distance bus travel. Under the Motor Vehicles Act and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, passenger vehicles are required to carry fire extinguishers and first-aid kits, and operators are responsible for the roadworthiness of their fleet. Enforcement of these norms has come under scrutiny after previous fatal accidents, and transport authorities in several States have periodically ordered fitness audits of buses plying on inter-State routes.
For the families of the nine passengers who died, Friday brought both the partial closure of identification formalities and the beginning of a criminal case that is likely to run for months. The police have not indicated whether more arrests are likely.
