Bus catches fire in Gurugram, two women killed, 29 hurt

Gurugram, November 9

Two women passengers died on Wednesday night when a moving sleeper bus caught fire on the Delhi-Gurugram expressway. A five-year-old girl is missing and 29 other passengers sustained burn injuries.

The police FIR initially mentioned the deceased as a mother-daughter duo, but later, the deceased were identified as Maya (28), a native of Rath village in Hamirpur district, and Gayatri (26), a native of Gorkha village in Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh. The missing girl is Maya’s daughter.

The police said that out of the 29 injured, 13 are still being treated. Two of them have been referred to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. Sixteen others who got minor burns were discharged after first aid.

The Gurugram police on Thursday said they have identified the driver and helper of the bus. The duo had fled after the incident. The FIR was filed on the complaint of Dinesh Kumar who expressed apprehension that the skeletons were of his wife Maya (28) and daughter Deepali (5).

“Deepali is still missing. We reached Medanta hospital where we got to know that a minor girl was in a critical condition in the night but later, she was referred to another hospital. We are still searching for her,” said Narender, a relative of the missing girl.

“We have recovered only two skeletons from the spot and both were women,” said Varun Dahiya, ACP crime.

Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted the post-mortem examination, said that two bodies have been 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.

Complainant Dinesh Kumar has been working as a labourer along with his family members at Deeghal in Rohtak for four months.

“To go to our village for Diwali, we – my wife Maya, daughters Alka and Deepali, five-month-old son Darmesh, brothers Mahender and Sachin and I — boarded the sleeper bus of Shri Ram and Sons Travels from Sector 12A chowk, Gurugram, at 8 pm on Wednesday. Around 8.30 pm, smoke started coming out from behind the bus and soon, the bus caught fire,” Dinesh wrote in his complaint.

An FIR was registered against unidentified persons under Section 304-Aof the IPC at Sector 40 police station.