A day after the bus tragedy that killed 45 persons at NH 44 near Palem in Mahbubnagar district, police on Thursday arrested Shakeel Jabbar, the owner of Jabbar Travels who surrendered before the police.
The Volvo AC bus, which was leased by Jabbar, is from Diwakar Road Lines, the company owned by former minister JC Diwakar Reddy.
The owner was booked under various Sections of Indian Penal Code and Motor Vehicles Act. With his arrest, the number of accused now stands at three with driver Feroz Pasha, cleaner Ayyaz Pasha being booked on Wednesday. While the former is in police custody, the latter is admitted at Apollo hospital here as he suffered 25 percent burns.
‘’The owner failed to have a second driver in the bus, allowed excess passengers, failed to maintain a list of passengers and allowed unaccounted-for cargo,” B Sreenivas Reddy, sub divisional police officer, Wanaparthy division, said.
Initial probe revealed that driver Feroze jumped out when the bus burst into flames, leaving the passengers to their fate, Reddy said. While Fayaz, the cleaner, raised alarm after seeing flames and saved some of the passengers, getting burn injuries himself in the process.