Gurugram Bus Fire: Minor Girl 'Missing', Accused Driver, Helper at Large

A five-year-old girl has gone “missing” after a bus caught fire on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway last night, killing two women. According to a senior police officer, the accused bus driver and his helper have been identified and efforts are on to nab them.

Earlier, the police said those killed in the Wednesday night incident were a mother-daughter duo but they later clarified that the charred bodies were of two women — Maya (28) and Gaytri (26).

On the complaint of Maya’s husband Dinesh, an FIR was registered in the matter under section 304-A (death due to negligence) of the IPC at Sector 40 Police Station on Wednesday late night, police said.

Dinesh has expressed apprehension that the two charred bodies were of Maya and her daughter Deepali who were missing. We have recovered only two charred bodies from the spot and both were of women. The complainant claims that his daughter is still missing. The further probe is underway and the picture will be cleared soon, ACP (crime) Varun Dahiya said. Twenty-nine passengers were injured when a moving sleeper bus caught fire on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway at around 8:30 pm, police said.

According to police, 13 injured are still undergoing treatment of which two were referred to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital in critical condition while others were discharged after first aid. During the inspection, it was revealed that some prohibited items were kept in the storage unit of the bus which caught fire.

There are unconfirmed reports that there was a gas cylinder in the bus. In his complaint, Kumar said that on Wednesday night, he along with his family members boarded the bus from sector 12 A chowk at 8 pm, about 30 minutes later, smoke started coming out from the back of the vehicle and it caught fire.

Meanwhile, another passenger claimed that his wife Gaytri was also missing. Later in the evening, police confirmed that the bodies were of two women. Our daughter Deepali is still missing. We reached Medanta hospital where we got to know that a minor girl was in critical condition in the night but later she was referred to another hospital but we are still searching for her, said the missing minor’s relative Narender.

Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted the post-mortem, said two bodies were kept in the mortuary by the police. Both of them died due to suffocation and after that, their bodies were completely burnt in the fire. “Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot after we received information that a sleeper bus with registration number AR 01 K 7707 had caught fire on the carriageway,” Fire Department Deputy Director Gulshan Kalra said.

The fire was brought under control, two passengers were charred to death. Some other passengers sustained burn injuries, he said. Civil Hospital’s Dr Manav said that all injured have suffered 30 to 50 per cent burns but are stable.