New Delhi: Rekha Bhardwaj and husband Devendra, both in their 60s, planned to travel by rail to Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh after a sudden death in the family. Their son, Sarvodaya, disagreed at the last moment since they could get only general class seats on the train. Prioritising comfort, he booked tickets for them on an air-conditioned sleeper bus.
All went to plan. After settling down on their sleeping berths in the bus, Rekha and Devendra video-called Sarvodaya, showing him what it looked like inside. Assured that his parents were travelling safely and comfortably, Sarvodaya went to sleep.
By morning, everything had changed. Sometime into the journey, the bus went up in flames, killing Sarvodaya’s father and injuring his mother. He learnt of it only hours later.
The bus, bearing registration number BR32 PA 8647, had left Kashmere Gate in Delhi at around 9 pm and was headed to Mahoba. According to the First Information Report (FIR), a copy of which ThePrint has seen, there were around 30-35 passengers on board.
Around 11.30 pm, when the bus neared the 33-km milestone of the Yamuna Expressway, some passengers noticed a pungent smell coming from the driver’s cabin. They told the conductor and driver, but according to the FIR, neither looked into it. The FIR, citing statements from the passengers, said the driver and conductor were smoking in the cabin.
After some time, the FIR states, flames were seen in the driver’s cabin; the passengers raised an alarm again, but the driver and conductor did not stop the vehicle. The FIR quotes one of them telling the passengers: “If you want to die, die; we will not stop the bus.” The FIR alleges that the crew failed to take necessary precautions despite being warned about the fire and that this ultimately resulted in the deaths of nine passengers.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Ravi Shankar Nim said a preliminary investigation has revealed that a spark in the air-conditioning system of the bus may have caused the fire, which then spread to other parts of the vehicle.
That explanation is of little solace to Sarvodaya.
Sitting under a tin shade outside the postmortem house in Noida’s Sector 94, Sarvodaya told ThePrint that his mother Rekha is under treatment at a hospital in Jewar.
Struggling to hold back tears, he said he identified his father’s body but has not told the mother about the father’s death.
For Sarvodaya, this tragedy is tied to the decision he took, urging his parents to take the bus. He shared that his father had recently gone through a medical procedure in which a metal rod was inserted into his left leg. It was because of this that he prioritised comfort.
Sarvodaya did not neglect the safety factor either, specifically choosing lower berths for his parents. “If something went wrong, I wanted them to be able to leave easily,” he said.
The metal rod in the leg helped him identify his father’s severely charred body. He said that he had been tracking his parents’ location on his phone after they left Kashmere Gate, and also spoke to them after dinner. At around 6 am, Sarvodaya called his mother but her phone was switched off. He then tried calling his father and found that number unreachable too.
After many unanswered calls, Sarvodaya began to worry. It was only after some hours when he got a call from the police station that his worst fears were confirmed. “Why did I book the bus tickets?” he asked, head in hands and tears in his eyes.
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‘Smoke everywhere’
Sarvodaya had received a WhatsApp message from the bus operator, Raj Kalpana Travels, at 1:15 am saying the bus tickets he booked for his parents were cancelled with no other information provided, even though the bus had already caught fire by this time.
Sarvodaya’s mother Rekha, being treated at the Arogya Hospital in Jewar, recalled waking up to chaos. Passengers were trying to get out of the bus, by now filled with smoke. “I don’t know how I came out of the bus. When I came to my senses, I was lying outside,” she said. About her husband, she said, “He has still not been found. Maybe he has died.”
Another passenger, Virendar Kumar Singh, who was travelling alone in the bus, told ThePrint that the conductor suddenly asked passengers to get off the bus. He found this unusual because the bus had not stopped at a restaurant or designated rest point. Virendar said there was a smell inside the bus too. After hearing the conductor, he peered out from his berth and saw that the bus was on fire. Singh said he immediately ran out.
Singh added that him and a couple of other passengers tried to open the emergency exit until the last moment possible, but they could not move that door. “We could hear faint voices but we could not help them as the bus was filled with smoke and fire,” he said.
He also said three boys from a nearby village noticed the burning bus and followed it for nearly 2 km to alert the driver and conductor.
Police probe
In an official statement, DCP Nim said that the police and fire team reached the spot after they received information about the fire and rescued 20 to 25 passengers. Nine persons were found inside the bus in a serious condition and taken to hospital, where doctors declared them dead, he said.
According to the preliminary investigation by the police, a spark or a burst in the air conditioning system of the bus that may have caused the fire which then spread through the bus. Both the driver and conductor have been taken into custody and further investigation is underway.
The FIR adds, it was the failure of the driver and conductor to take precautions despite the passengers trying to alert them to the burning smell that led to the deaths of the nine passengers. The police have registered a case under Sections 281, 125(b), 105 and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The Uttar Pradesh government has also announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to each of the families of the nine deceased.
For Sarvodaya, the questions are more personal. When he was younger, he said, he would tell his father that once they had earned enough, they would leave the country. His father would just smile. “People die every day, and if they die because of their own mistakes, it would make sense. But here? They made no mistake. It was carelessness,” he said.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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