Four held in Volvo bus mishap case

Hyderabad, Jan 10 : The Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested four employees of Jabbar Travels in connection with the Volvo bus fire mishap.

According to Additional DGP (CID) T Krishna Prasad, the CID team visited Bangalore city and arrested four employees of Jabbar Travels. They are Syed Akram Ahmad, Shabbir Khan, Amanullah Khan and Mohd. Rafeeq. The original case was registered in Kothapeta PS under Cr.No.193/2013 u/s 304-A, 337, 109 IPC & Sec.177, 190 MV Act and later the CID took over the investigation.

On October 31, the bus driver Fairoz Basha and Shakeen Jabbar, owner of Jabbar Travels were arrested and sent to judicial custody.

Krishna Prasad said that the CID investigation is having multi-disciplinary approach to examine the criminal culpability of Volvo Bus Manufactory and their distributors, owners of the bus, the RTA authorities in Bangalore who gave the permit, bus operator, RTA authorities in Hyderabad, National Highway Authorities and the National Highway Contractors etc.,

On October 30, at about 5 AM, a Volvo bus bearing no. AP 02 – TA-0963, belonging to Jabbar Travels, Bangalore driven by Fairoz Basha, dashed against a culvert located in the Median near Palem village. Due to the impact, the iron pipe of the culvert pierced the diesel tank of bus and due to forcible dragging and friction, sparks were produced which in turn resulted in flames from the diesel in the tank & cargo items. The diesel, due to piercing from the iron pipe started spilling all over. The flames emanating from the burning diesel and cargo items engulfed the bus from all sides.

The passengers who were in deep sleep had no chance to escape resulting in death of 45 passengers (including a child). The remaining six passengers could react quickly and escaped with burn injuries. The entire tragedy was over in less than 20 minutes. INN