Poor Mahoba farmer owner of 35 buses, including the Unnao one
Pushpendra Singh said the documents he submitted for employment with Karan Chand Jain’s KC Jain Travels of Jodhpur, the real owner of the ill-fated bus, were misused.
The aftermath of the Unnao accident that claimed 18 lives on July 10 has opened a can of worms.
Believe it or not, Pushpendra Singh, a poor farmer from Mavai village of Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh with an annual income of ₹2 lakh, has 35 sleeper buses registered in his name, it includes the double-decker bus that met with the accident in Unnao.
Pushpendra Singh said the documents he submitted for employment with Karan Chand Jain’s KC Jain Travels of Jodhpur, the real owner of the ill-fated bus, were misused.
These 35 buses are among 79 registered in 2019 and 2021, said officials of the UP road transport authority privy to the details.
Of these 79 buses, 68 were registered on temporary addresses in Mahoba alone in the name of people, most of whom were not even aware of the fact that they have buses in their name, said the sources in Mahoba.
The vehicles are registered in the name of Pushpendra Singh of village Mavui Khurd, Khanna, Mahoba.
“I left my job after my employer died due to Covid-19. It turns out that my documents were used for additional registrations,” Pushpendra Singh said, adding that the company was being run by one Sohan from Delhi. KC Travels has its registered office at NK Tower, Kohinoor Cinema in Jodhpur.
ARTO Unnao, Arvind Singh, said that Sohan claimed the bus was being operated by one Chandan Jaiswal from Pahargunj. “A police team has been dispatched to track down both Sohan and Chandan Jaiswal,” Arvind Singh, who is the complainant in the case, said.
All this points to a scam wherein buses were registered on temporary addresses, and no permanent address was verified during the registration process, added people in the know of things in Mahoba.
The road transport authority had initiated an investigation into this scam, leading to the punishment of an ARTO-level officer in 2021.
The inquiry was initiated in 2022 regarding the registration of 68 buses in violation of regulations. The investigation was initially conducted by Rajiv Srivastava, the deputy transport commissioner of Meerut. The inquiry was later transferred to the Bareilly region and then to the Kanpur region, where deputy transport commissioner DK Tripathi completed the investigation. The multi-tiered investigation revealed serious irregularities in the bus registrations. Then ARTO (administration) Mahendra Singh was indicted. His salary increment for one year was put on hold, said officials of RTA.
Despite this action, 68 buses continued to operate with impunity, lacking proper fitness certifications and insurance, said at least two people aware of initial findings.
Most of the buses were used ones and purchased from outside Uttar Pradesh, specifically from Rajasthan and Delhi. A transport cartel that has grown strong in the Delhi-Bundelkhand and Delhi-Bihar circuits exploited a deep-rooted nexus with officials to manipulate the registration process.
This cartel took advantage of a technicality in the registration system: for example, if a vehicle was purchased by a person from Mahoba in the nearest Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, the ARTO would register the vehicle under the Mahoba registration code UP95.
As a result, the Chattarpur code MP-16 would be erased from the records, with the only condition being that the vehicle had to be purchased by a local resident.
In turn, the transporters reaped many benefits as has emerged from the ongoing fact-finding efforts.
The use of temporary addresses allowed the transporters to evade penalties, taxes and insurance liabilities. Notices sent in the past were not served because even these temporary addresses were not verified by the ARTO office in Mahoba.
Pushpendra’s father Indrapal Singh, also a farmer, said that once a challan for a bus had come to the village but it was not served. (The person who brought the challan could not locate the house but the information reached his father who shared it with Pushpendra).
“I told my son about it and he went to Jodhpur instead,” he said, adding he was not aware of this fact that 35 buses were registered in his son’s name.
Currently, each of the 68 buses has a tax liability ranging from ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh, according to officials in Lucknow and Mahoba.
Further, the challans for these buses could not be served.
For instance, the Unnao bus involved in the deaths of 18 people had accumulated 93 challans over the past five years, with expired fitness and insurance certificates and unpaid taxes since 2021.
“These transporters thrive on the migrant workers from Bundelkhand and Bihar. Wages have improved, and workers traveling to other states now hire entire buses for a more comfortable journey,” said two officials. They added that this is how the syndicate gained a strong foothold in Bundelkhand, using middlemen and pliant officials to manipulate the system. The Unnao bus, for example, had 60 migrant workers who had each paid ₹3,400 for the journey to Delhi.
Some of these 68 buses are registered in name of Satyendra Agnihotri, a businessman from Kabrai in Mahoba. Agnihotri said, “Six months ago, I chanced upon a notice sent by ARTO Mahoba for payment of taxes against a vehicle, which registered in his name.”
“I approached the officials (that) I do not have any such vehicle; I sent my clarification through the registered post as well. It seems my documents submitted for registration of another vehicle were grossly misused,” he said.
Questions are being raised about why the RTA did not take action following the inquiry. According to official sources, tax liabilities and vehicle seizures are managed by sending notices to permanent addresses. In the case of these buses, there was no permanent address available, which led to challans and notices remaining unresolved in the files.
Buses travelling between Bihar and Delhi passed through 22 districts, yet neither the transport authorities nor the police checked the documents. The question arises if the documents had been checked, why were the vehicles not seized.
Experts familiar with such cases argue that transport officials often use the excuse of passenger inconvenience to avoid action. It is commonly stated in challans that passengers are on board and there is no alternative bus available to transport them to their destinations. This is despite clear government instructions that it is the enforcement officer’s responsibility to ensure passengers are sent to their destinations if a bus is seized for violations.
ARTO Mahoba Daya Shankar said effective action was being taken against the travel agency and those who have multiple registrations in their name.
“In the last 48 hours, we have cancelled the permits of 30 such buses,” he said .