E-Paper
Haryana school bus mishap: Court sends driver, principal, secy to 5-day police remand
The bus driver, identified as Dharmender, school principal Deepti Rao and school secretary Hoshiyar Singh were sent to a five-day police remand by the court
A day after six children lost their lives in a horrific school bus crash near Unhani village in Mahendergarh, police produced the bus driver, school principal and secretary before a local court in Mahendergarh’s Kanina on Friday.
The bus driver, identified as Dharmender, school principal Deepti Rao and school secretary Hoshiyar Singh were sent to a five-day police remand by the court.
Kanina deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Mahender Singh said raids are being conducted to arrest school owner Rajendra Lodha and his younger son Subhash Yadav, who is the managing director of the school. The duo is at large. Hoshiyar is the elder son of Rajendra and Deepti is Subhash’s wife.
“During the remand period, we will ascertain the role of the school owner and director too. The bus driver’s driving licence is yet to be recovered and we will check if it was valid or not. We received CCTV footage in which the driver can be seen stopping the bus for nearly 10 minutes around 7.25 am on Thursday at Kheri Talwana village. Four other persons boarded the bus and after they de-boarded, the driver started the bus for students. We suspect that he had consumed alcohol there and we will question the four persons who sat in the standing bus for 10 minutes,” the DSP added.
“ We will also interrogate the school principal about why she allowed the bus to move when she received information that the bus driver was drunk. Why was the school opened despite a public holiday? The safety measures were missing from the bus and the bus had no attendant, no teacher and no woman staff when the incident took place,” the DSP added.
Asked driver multiple times to slow down: Student
Class 12 student Anuj Sharma, the complainant in the case, said the students had asked the driver multiple times to slow down the speed of the bus as he was drunk but he ignored their pleas.
Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and Mahendergarh MLA Rao Dan Singh on Friday met the grief-stricken families to pay condolences on the demise of six children.
Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Jharli village, told the duo that he lost his son Yuvraj, a Class-9 student, in the mishap due to the school and administration’s negligence.
“Some villagers and parents stopped the bus at Kheri Talwana village upon learning that the driver was drunk but the school principal, Deepti Rao, threatened the villagers and parents to face dire consequences if they did not hand over the bus’s key to the driver. I lost my son and I don’t want any child should face a similar fate in the future. The government should bring strict rules and regulations so that schools should follow all transportation guidelines,” he added.
He said they were complaining to the school principal to change the bus driver for the last six months but she remained adamant not to change the driver.
“The school authorities need drivers who can work for a minimum salary and they did not focus on other parameters like the driver’s experience, his behaviour and the old bus was deployed to ferry the students,” Sanjay Kumar added.
Hooda said the government should initiate strict action against the driver and school management.
“The fitness certificate of the bus expired six years ago, there was no helper, the driver was drunk and the school was open on a government holiday. The school authorities and administration are responsible for this tragedy and the government should fix the responsibility,” he added.
The Mahendergarh deputy commissioner has formed a four-member panel consisting of Mahendergarh ADC, Kania SDM and DSP and district education officer (DEO) Sunil Dutt. The parents and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP Dharambir Singh raised questions about inducting the DEO into the probe panel.
MP Singh said the DEO is also responsible as the school was opened despite a government holiday, adding he will talk to chief minister Nayab Singh Saini to remove him from the panel because he can influence the investigation.
