Heart-wrenching tales of Noida bus fire: IndiGo engineer who stood by his mother and an IIT engineer’s final call
A fire engulfed a sleeper bus traveling on the Yamuna Expressway, resulting in nine fatalities and several others injured. Eyewitness accounts indicated that passengers had notified the bus crew about a burning smell prior to the incident. Authorities arrested the travel company's manager, alleging negligence regarding the bus's maintenance and condition. Multiple passengers reported difficulties escaping due to smoke and panic during the fire.
NOIDA: The fire that engulfed a private sleeper bus on the Yamuna Expressway late Wednesday night left nine people dead and 26 passengers, along with the drivers and conductor, alive. But for the families of those killed, the tragedy unfolded through heartbreaking final moments, difficult identifications and questions over whether the disaster could have been prevented.The AC sleeper bus (BR32PA8647), operated by Raj Kalpana Travels, was travelling from Kashmere Gate in Delhi to Mahoba when it caught fire near the 33-km milestone of the Yamuna Expressway in Jewar around 11.20pm.Police have since arrested the travel firm's manager, Vikas, alleging that repeated warnings about defects and the need for servicing were ignored.Son refused to leave burning bus without motherFor 28-year-old Shashank Gupta, the journey to Mahoba was meant to be a trip with his mother.
Instead, it became their final journey together.The last thing Shashank told the bus driver was that he would get off only after his mother, Sunita Gupta, 47, did. He never got the chance.Sunita had been living with Shashank in Gurgaon for about a month while receiving treatment for knee pain that had left her struggling to walk.When her husband Neeraj’s brother suffered a heart attack in Charkhari, Mahoba, three days before the fire, mother and son decided to travel there together.Train tickets were unavailable, so they booked seats towards the rear of the sleeper bus.Neeraj said passengers had complained of a burning smell inside the bus before flames became visible.
He alleged that their complaints went unheeded and that the bus was not stopped, a delay he believes may have cost lives.Some passengers earlier told TOI that they had raised an alarm with the driver and conductor, who allegedly continued smoking inside the cabin instead of pulling over. Flames soon appeared near the driver's seat and smoke rapidly filled the bus.As passengers scrambled to escape, some smashed windows and jumped from the moving vehicle, while others rushed towards the front after the driver eventually pulled over.“
Amid that scramble, Sunita, unable to move quickly because of her injured knee, fell behind. Other passengers told me that Shashank refused to leave her side,” Neeraj said.“ The driver and conductor both urged my son to get out while he still could. He refused, telling them he would only leave with his mother. He stayed, trying to pull her towards the door as the cabin filled with smoke, until neither of them could breathe and lost consciousness,” Neeraj said.Their badly burnt bodies were identified on Friday, not by their faces but by what survived.
Family members recognised Sunita by her height and Shashank by a ring he wore.Shashank worked as an engineer with IndiGo Airlines in Gurgaon. He is survived by his father and younger brother Nikhil, 22. Their bodies were taken to Charkhari on Friday.Fiancé followed her bus, last call came at 10.19pmFor Mohit Sharma, an IIT Delhi supercomputer engineer, the last evening with his fiancée Shruti Rawat began like any other.Mohit had dropped Shruti at Kashmere Gate, where she boarded the bus around 8.40pm.
She was travelling to Orai in Jalaun to celebrate her sister’s birthday. Mohit wanted to accompany her, but Shruti, a project manager at an IT company in Noida, asked him to stay back and focus on work.Unable to simply let her leave, Mohit followed the bus on his scooter towards Noida, speaking to Shruti on the phone for nearly 22km.“ In love, we cannot easily say goodbye to a person with whom we are connected,” Mohit told TOI later.For about 50 minutes, their journey became an extension of their goodbye.
Shruti eventually insisted that he turn back. Mohit took a U-turn and headed towards his home near IIT Delhi.At 10.19pm, Shruti called him once more as she was turning in for the night. She promised to call again the next morning after reaching home.She never did.The couple had been together for seven months. They had met through a distant relative, grown close and decided to marry in November this year.Around 6.30am on Thursday, Shruti’s sister reached the Orai bus stand to receive her.
Instead, the family learnt from the operator that the bus had caught fire in Greater Noida.Repeated calls from Shruti’s family woke Mohit. He began searching for answers, first reaching Kailash Hospital in Jewar. There, he received the number of a witness, Utkarsh, and began piecing together what had happened.He then moved from one place to another, searching for Shruti and waiting for confirmation that she was alive.At the Sector 94 post-mortem house, amid families trying to identify their loved ones, memories of the previous evening kept returning to him.“
The flashback of our memories and the time we spent is coming back and forth in my mind,” Mohit said.Mohit eventually learnt that Shruti was among the nine people killed in the fire.What torments him is the thought that he might have been able to change what happened.“ I was also planning to go. Maybe I could have saved her,” he said.Mohit is working on IIT Delhi’s Param Pragya project. But on Thursday, at the post-mortem house, he was simply a fiancé waiting for confirmation of the woman he was meant to marry in two months.Families struggle to identify badly burnt bodiesFor the families of the nine victims, the tragedy deepened at the Sector 94 post-mortem house on Friday, where relatives struggled to identify their loved ones because of the extensive burns.Police initially identified six of the nine deceased.
The bodies were eventually identified through physical features and personal belongings.Sarvagya, son of Rekha Bhardwaj, an injured passenger who survived, was at the post-mortem house after his father, Devendra Sahay Bhardwaj, died in the fire.Sarvagya said his father, a retired teacher from a university in Hisar, Haryana, and his mother were travelling to Mahoba to attend the last rites of his grandmother.Siblings Shivam and Nancy also spent hours at the mortuary after learning about the fire.
They eventually identified the bodies of their mother and brother after considerable difficulty.In another case, Ayushi, the granddaughter of one of the deceased, helped identify the body with an anklet that had been gifted by her son.The difficulty in identifying the bodies underlined the severity of the burns suffered by those trapped inside the bus.Police later released the body of Omprakash Dhan Singh, the ninth victim identified.
The other victims were Shruti Rawat, 28, of Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh; Saroj Gupta, 52; Mayank Gupta, 28; and Usha Devi, 65, all from Hamirpur; Devendra Sahay Bhardwaj, 60, of Hisar, Haryana; and Har Sharan Gupta, 55, of Jalaun.All nine bodies have been returned to their families following autopsy, police said.Manager arrested over alleged maintenance lapsesThe police probe has also raised questions over whether the fire could have been prevented.Police arrested Raj Kalpana Travels manager Vikas on Friday, alleging that he ignored repeated warnings that the bus needed urgent servicing before another long journey.According to police, the driver and conductor had earlier alerted Vikas about defects, unusual noises and problems with equipment, but the vehicle was still allowed to undertake the 600km journey from Kashmere Gate to Mahoba.The bus had 35 passengers on board.A preliminary probe has pointed to faulty wiring as a possible trigger.
Officials said multiple lights and LED strips were operating along with the air-conditioning system, putting a heavy load on the electrical wiring. A spark or short circuit may have set off the flames, which then reached engine lubricant oil and spread rapidly.Police are also examining other possibilities, including combustible material near the fuel tanker, cigarette disposal inside the cabin, overheated mobile phones and high-speed driving.The bus was registered in Bihar and had accumulated more than 60 traffic challans, according to records examined after the crash.Several passengers said they had repeatedly alerted the driver and attendant about an acrid or burning smell from the front of the vehicle.Roni Vishwas of Jalaun told TOI he went to the driver’s cabin around 11pm to warn them about the smell.
“All three, including the conductor, were busy on their phones and chit-chatting. They told me ‘it’s normal, go and sit’. I even told them this could be risky, but they didn’t pay heed and continued driving,” he added.Another passenger, Ankit Rajput, said he also asked the driver to stop. “They were smoking beedis and cigarettes and gave me a glare. They told me, ‘smell aati hai, tension na lo, aage rokenge’,” he said.Sunil Kumar, who too complained to the staff, said one of them told him, “go and die if you want”.
Police said they were examining these allegations.An officer said the driver and conductor had told manager Vikas several times that the bus needed to be checked and serviced before another long trip from Kashmere Gate.“ The bus was not being examined despite repeated complaints about its condition. They had informed the manager about unusual noises, defects and problems with equipment, including charging points. They asked him several times to get the vehicle checked for fitness and serviced, but were told to continue operating the bus,” the officer said.Questions over emergency exits, fire safetyThe investigation has also raised questions over emergency preparedness on the bus.Officials said passengers had not been briefed about emergency exits or fire extinguishers.
There were allegedly no readily available glass-breaking hammers near seats and no staff member positioned near emergency exits.By the time passengers realised the fire had spread, thick smoke had filled the cabin. The sleeper layout, narrow passage and panic made escape more difficult.Rinki Rajput, who managed to rush out, said: “Everyone was jostling with each other to come out of the burning bus. The vehicle was filled with smoke and everyone was struggling to breathe.
Most of the passengers were asleep. Someone woke me up and told me that the bus had caught fire. We somehow broke a window and jumped out to save our lives. Within moments, the fire engulfed the entire bus. Several people were still trapped inside.” Rekha Bhardwaj, who was injured, was travelling with her husband Devendra.“ I was sleeping inside the bus when people started shouting. Everyone began rushing towards the exit, pushing each other in panic.
I slipped and fell on the aisle. People climbed over me in their bid to escape,” she said.Vishwamitra Yadav said smoke made escape even more difficult.“ I was sleeping too when the bus caught fire. We all rushed to get out. It was not easy to escape as there was a lot of smoke. Amid the panic, we somehow managed to rush out,” he said.Driver Pawan Kumar, backup driver Yogesh Dixit and attendant Rohit Kumar were picked up on Thursday.An FIR was registered at Jewar police station under BNS sections 281 for rash driving or riding on a public way, 125(b) for an act endangering life or personal safety of others, 105 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and 351(3) for criminal intimidation.“
We will examine all records and statements to establish whether servicing or safety lapses contributed to the deaths,” an officer said.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Noida | Silver Rate in Noida | Bank Holidays in Noida | Public Holidays in Noida | Noida AQI | Weather in Noida | Petrol Price in Noida | Diesel Price in Noida | CNG Price in Noida | LPG Price in NoidaStay updated with the latest Noida news. Download the TOI App.