GURUGRAM: A middle-aged couple riding a
bicycle was crushed to death by a
school bus that was coming from behind early morning on Thursday.
The victims — Giyasuddin (58) and Anjunara Sarkar (47) — were headed to work when the DPS bus took an abrupt turn and knocked the two down. Its rear wheels ran over them. The
accident happened around 6.45am, just outside the CNG pump in Sector 44, on the road leading to Huda City Centre metro station.
It triggered spontaneous protests by locals and early morning commuters, who shattered the windows of the bus with stones and blocked the road for around half an hour. There were no students in the bus as it was headed for the CNG station to refuel before picking up students. Hundreds of vehicles were seen honking as people blocked the busy road to protest. Soon, the commotion spread to other roads, including the Fortis roundabout and the road leading to the expressway. Police said they had to use “mild force” to disperse the crowd. The driver, who fled the spot, was arrested on Thursday afternoon.
Giyasuddin and Anjunara were from South Dinajpur in West Bengal and worked as sanitation staff at K R Mangalam School. They had been living on rent in Wazirabad village for the last decade or so with their family, police said. Eyewitnesses said the bus, with its rear-view mirrors folded in, was being driven rashly. It was coming from the Wazirabad side and had taken a sudden tight turn to the left for the CNG pump, leaving no room between it and the bicycle which the Sarkars were riding. Giyasuddin and his wife were thrown to the road as the bus hit them and were run over by its front left wheel.
The driver and helper jumped out and fled. Giyasuddin’s head was crushed. Locals rushed Anjunara to the nearby Fortis hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead. “The bus driver was driving at speed and going zigzag. In a split second, the bicycle was run over,” said an eyewitness.
Sumit, a fruit juice seller who has his stall on a pavement next to the CNG station, said, “At 6.30am, I put up my stall. A few minutes later, I saw a bus taking a sharp left turn, crushing two people on a bicycle. Police arrived within 5 minutes, took the bodies away and removed the bus within half an hour.”
A police team led by sub-inspector Rajesh Kumar, SHO of Sushant Lok police station, rushed to the spot, but a mob had already damaged the bus. People also blocked the road near Gold Souk towards Huda City Centre metro station. Police managed to remove the blockade but family members and relatives of Giyasuddin and Anjunara sat in protest in front of the bus, demanding immediate arrest of the accused.
An FIR was filed against the driver, based on a complaint by the victims’ son Firoz Ali Sarkar under sections 279 (rash driving), 304A (death by negligence) of IPC at Sushant Lok police station. By afternoon, the driver — Kuldeep (25) who is from Sonipat — had been arrested. According to police, Kuldeep told them he was not the regular driver of the bus and was only taking it for refuelling. Another FIR was filed against unknown protesters, under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 427 (causing damage) of the IPC.
Hours after the accident, government officials contradicted eyewitness accounts that the bus was speeding, saying it had a speed governor installed in line with the state’s Surakshit School Vahan Policy. Additional deputy commissioner (RTA) R K Singh said, “The school bus had an inbuilt speed governor, so there’s no question of speeding. Its speed can’t have been over 40-45 kmph. The DPS school principal has told us the driver had undergone requisite training and was medically fit, which fulfils Vahan policy requirements.” DPS authorities refused to comment.
Other officials, however, claimed the audit of school buses was not done as often as required due to lack of resources at the road transport authority office. In the past two years, several accidents involving school buses have happened in the city. The most recent was on July 5 when a two-year-old boy came under the wheels of a school bus at Rithoj village in Bhondsi.
(With inputs from Sakshi Virmani)
Cops examine the bus after the accident
