Driver Of Private Bus That Caught Fire In Kurnool And Claimed 20 Lives Arrested

20 Killed as Bus Catches Fire in Andhra Pradesh

Kurnool Bus Tragedy: In a significant development, the driver of the ill-fated Bengaluru-bound bus, which caught fire and killed 20 people in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool, has been arrested.

The driver, identified as Miriyala Lakshmaiah (42), along with the additional driver, was in police custody, and a case was filed regarding the incident on Friday, NDTV reported.

The police found that Lakshmaiah, who studied only up to Class 5, managed to get a heavy vehicle driving licence with fake Class 10 certificates, the report added.

As per police, Lakshmaiah escaped the blaze by jumping out through the passenger door but failed to grasp the severity of the situation.

“Once the fire started (and) the bus came to a halt, through the passenger door he (Lakshmaiah) jumped out. He did not understand the intensity,” Kurnool superintendent of police Vikrant Patil told PTI.

After escaping the fire, Lakshmaiah woke up the additional driver, who had been sleeping in the luggage compartment beneath the bus. Realising they could not enter the vehicle, both men used a rod meant for changing tyres to break window panes, helping some passengers flee the burning bus, Patil said.

Police later detained him in Kurnool and held him responsible for the disaster, booking him for negligence and overspeeding under sections 125(a) (endangering human life) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act.

Kurnool Bus Tragedy

19 passengers and a motorbike rider were charred to death when the private bus collided with a two-wheeler at Chinnatekuru village in Kurnool district. Out of 44 passengers on board, several managed to escape the flames.

CCTV footage revealed that the biker, identified as B Shiva Shankar, refuelled his motorcycle at 2:24 a.m., before losing control at 2:39 a.m. The collision resulted in the devastating bus fire.

Shankar and his pillion rider, Erri Swamy, had been returning from dinner and drinks at a dhaba. Both admitted to being intoxicated. Shankar lost control of his bike, collided with a divider, and died on the spot. The bus then ran over the two-wheeler, dragging it along the road. The fuel tank sparked a fire that claimed the lives of 19 passengers.