This story is from August 6, 2018

Raigad mishap: Police suspect lone survivor was driving ill-fated bus

Raigad mishap: Police suspect lone survivor was driving ill-fated bus
The group was heading to Mahabaleshwar for a picnic in a university bus, when the accident took place on July 29. (File Photo)
NAVI MUMBAI: A week after 33 employees of Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth in Dapoli were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a 500-ft gorge at Ambenali ghat on the Poladpur-Mahabaleshwar road in Raigad district, the police have decided to question the lone survivor, Prakash Sawant-Desai, to probe if he was driving the vehicle.
The group was heading to Mahabaleshwar for a picnic in a university bus, when the accident took place on July 29.

A senior police officer told TOI that they decided to probe this angle based on suspicions raised by the kin of the deceased victims. A relative of one of the deceased, Sanjay Gurav, sent a letter to Raigad SP Anil Paraskar raising suspicion that Sawant-Desai might have been driving the bus and had jumped off on seeing the bus plunge into the valley. Sawant-Desai was seen sitting next to the driver in few of the photographs shared from inside the bus. “We will interrogate Sawant-Desai to find out if he or someone else was driving the bus, who was responsible for the mishap and how it happened,” said Paraskar.
It is still not clear who was driving the bus. There were two registered drivers inside the vehicle—Jalgaon resident Prashant Bhambid (33) and Dapoli resident Sandip Zagade (35)—but they died in the accident.
Sawant-Desai has a light motor vehicle (LMV) driving licence. “He owns a car,” said DM Mahale, a professor at the college and head of soil and water conservation. Pen taluka assistant RTO RJ Sarak said, “People with LMV licence can drive a bus, which is a medium motor vehicle.” Meanwhile, the public works department has installed metal crash barriers at the mishap site on Sunday.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA