Kurla BEST bus accident: Driver remanded to 14-day judicial custody

The prosecution informed the court that the police have completed a primary investigation and taken Sanjay More to the accident spot to understand what transpired

Mumbai: A metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday sent Sanjay More, who ploughed a BEST bus into several pedestrians and vehicles on a busy road in Kurla West on December 9, killing nine people and injuring 41, to judicial custody for 14 days, up to January 3.

Kurla BEST bus accident: Driver remanded to 14-day judicial custody

More was produced before the court in Kurla on Saturday after his police custody remand ended. The 54-year-old bus driver has been booked under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The prosecution informed the court that the police have completed a primary investigation and taken More to the accident spot to understand what transpired. More also took a psychological test, which confirmed he was not mentally ill, while his blood report confirmed he was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, the prosecution said. It added that the regional transport office had confirmed that the electric bus involved in the accident was working fine.

More’s lawyer, Samadhan Sulene, pressed for bail, arguing that the police had not yet investigated the roles of BEST officers or the wet-lease contractor who failed to provide him with adequate training to drive electric buses. “The police have not done any investigations about the training aspect nor made BEST or the contractor the accused. [More] didn’t have proper training, and authorities were responsible for it,” Sulene said.

After the police sent More to judicial custody, Sulene said he would approach a sessions court for bail on Monday.

The prosecution had earlier described the crime as heinous, alleging that More was driving at a high speed despite knowing it was a crowded area. Sulene had said that his client had been driving four-wheelers since 1989, adding that there was a malfunction in the BEST bus, which led to him losing control of the vehicle. More could not stop the bus despite trying his best, Sulene had said.

According to officials, More had only driven manual, geared, diesel vehicles till December 1 and transitioned to an automatic electric bus after just three rounds of training. According to BEST’s internal standard operating procedure, bus drivers need to go through six weeks of training before transitioning from manual to automatic electric.