Mumbai:

Investigations have revealed that the driver of the bus crash in Maharashtra’s Kurla in which seven people were killed and several others injured, was not under the influence of liquor.

Driver Sanjay Dutta More whose blood sample was sent for testing to check the presence of alcohol was found negative.

Further investigations were on.

The police are primarily considering it an intentional incident, but why the driver did this has yet to be known.

On Saturday, the police recorded statements from people from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) administration.

Statements of 40 people have been recorded and an investigation was being held on its basis, the police said.

On December 9, the BEST bus mowed down 49 people, killing seven, and crashed into over 30 vehicles.

The incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. in the crowded Kurla West market when More sped the bus and rammed into at least 25 vehicles spreading havoc in the area.

A magistrate court in Kurla has sent the bus driver to police custody till December 21.

According to the BEST, the driver had lost control of the 12-metre-long electric bus.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim’s family and full medical treatment expenses of all the injured in the tragedy, while Deputy CM Ajit Pawar assured that the matter would be thoroughly probed and the guilty shall be punished.

The BEST announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim’s family and set up a probe committee headed by Chief Manager Ramesh Madavi.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Aditya Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) Working President Supriya Sule, Congress Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan and other Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders demanded a complete enquiry into the tragedy and the most stringent action against the culprits.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

A 55-year-old man hailing from Kerala died after being run over by a bus operated by BEST in south Mumbai on Wednesday evening, officials said, in second fatal accident involving a vehicle of the Mumbai civic transport body in three days.

The victim was first hit by a speeding motorcycle and then run over by the bus near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), they said.

The bus driver, Dnyandeo Jagdale, was taken into custody for inquiry, they said.

The accident occurred two days after the horrific bus tragedy in the Kurla area of the metropolis in which an out of control electric bus of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking fatally knocked down seven persons and injured 42 others on Monday night.

“Around 4.30 pm on Wednesday, a motorbiker hit a man in front of Hotel Shivala near the CSMT, due to which he fell on the road. Just then, a speeding BEST bus going towards the Electric House in south Mumbai from Anushakti Nagar ran over him,” a police official said.

The pedestrian came under the rear wheel of the BEST bus and died on the spot, he said.

The person who died was identified by the police as Hasenar Anduhi, a resident of Badaiyabuka Bela in Kasaragod district of Kerala.

Driver Jagdale was taken into custody for inquiry by officials of the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg police station, he said, adding a case was being registered in this connection.

The police have launched a search for the motorcyclist, who hit the pedestrian.

A senior BEST official said the bus belongs to a wet lease private operator, but its driver Jagdale is an employee of the civic undertaking.

In the Kurla crash, the police have arrested Sanjay More (54), who was at the wheel of the ill-fated bus.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)