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Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 25 (IANS) The investigation into the horrific bus fire that claimed 19 lives took a new turn on Saturday when police took into custody a pillion rider on a motorcycle believed to have caught fire after being hit by the bus.
B riding a motorcycle. Shiv Shankar (22) died on the spot, while his friend Eriswamy, who was sitting behind, escaped with minor injuries. He allegedly fled from the spot after the bus caught fire.
Police officials are questioning Eriswami about the sequence of events that led to the fire in the bus.
They were trying to find out whether the motorcycle had already crashed before the bus hit the two-wheeler lying on the road, as claimed by the bus driver, or whether the bus had hit the motorcycle from behind and ran over it.
Investigators hope to clarify what exactly happened before the bus caught fire.
The bus of a private travel operator was going from Hyderabad to Bengaluru with 44 passengers. The accident occurred between 3-3.15 am near Chinnatekur village on the outskirts of Kurnool.
While 19 passengers, including two children, were burnt to death, 27 passengers, including the two drivers, escaped by breaking the windows.
Preliminary investigation suggests that as the motorcycle got stuck under the belly of the bus, friction from the bike and fuel leakage caused the massive fire.
As part of the investigation into the accident, police scanned CCTV footage in the area on National Highway-44 and spotted the bike at a petrol station minutes before the accident.
Shiv Shankar was seen driving the bike recklessly and police suspect that he was under the influence of alcohol or some other substance. The police identified the youth sitting behind as Eriswamy, a friend of Shiv Shankar.
Police picked up the youth from his house in Rampalli village of Tuggali mandal of the same district.
Both of them had left from Kurnool for some work in the early hours of Friday to wash in Nandyal district. When they met with an accident in which Shiva Shankar died, Eriswami fled the scene.
The video footage shows the biker arriving at a petrol pump at 2:22 am with a pillion rider. According to the petrol pump manager, it was a Pulsar bike. The headlight was not working and the rider was using only the left indicator.
The pump manager said that the rider seemed drunk and was riding the bike like a stuntman. Since there was no attendant in the dispensing unit (DU), a man sitting in the back seat went, apparently to find someone to refuel his vehicle. The bike rider also got down and went around the petrol pump.
The pump manager said that only one DU out of three was open at that time. When both the youths reached another DU employee, he asked them to bring their vehicle. According to the employee, the way Shiv Shankar was driving the car, it seemed that the car might slip. He brought the vehicle to DU, which was open, and got the vehicle filled with fuel.
The petrol pump manager said that since the motorcyclist had paid in cash, they had no record of how much petrol he filled.
Shiv Shankar’s body was found about 200 meters before the place where the bus caught fire. The bus dragged the bike for 200 meters before stopping.
Police have also collected CCTV footage of the bus passing in front of the petrol pump. It is hoped that this footage will help investigators determine the speed at which the bus was being driven.
Both the drivers of the bus, Laxmaiah and Shiv Narayan, are already in police custody.
–IANS
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