24 killed, 46 injured as bus falls into dry river in Khargone

KHARGONE: As many as 24 people, including 9 women and three children, died and 46 others were injured when a private passenger bus fell off a bridge built on Borad river in Dongargaon area of Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan condoled the death of passengers in the accident
A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident while eleven injured have been referred to Indore.
Khargone district collector Shivraj Singh Verma said 15 people died on the spot while others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital in Khargone. Verma said that the private passenger bus was heading towards Indore when it broke through the railing and fell from a height of around 50ft in the dry river at around 8.40am.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced a relief of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. Additionally, he announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to other injured.
Minister in-charge of Khargone district Kamal Patel, who reached Khargone by helicopter after learning about the incident, said that there were about 70 passengers in the 35-seater bus. "The government has taken a serious note of the incident and RTO Barkha Gaur Shukla has been suspended with immediate effect," he said, adding that the driver was speeding the bus.
Patel said that instructions have been given to the district collector and superintendent of police to check the fitness certificate and other relevant documents of all passenger buses plying in the district. Khargone's sub-divisional officer (Police) Rakesh Mohan Shukla said that preliminary investigations reveal that the driver of the bus Sunil Rathore dozed off leading to the accident.
The driver of the vehicle was seriously injured while the bus conductor Santosh Barche died in the accident, Shukla said.
Soon after the bus fell, villagers of Dongargaon and Lonara reached the spot and pulled out the injured by breaking the windscreens and window panes of the bus. The bus overturned after the fall, and villagers pushed it back on its wheels before the police reached the spot. They also took the injured to the local hospital in private vehicles. A 2-year-old boy with a previously fractured arm was completely unharmed although his parents were injured in the incident. Officials were taking him to Indore for further check-up.
MP home minister Narottam Mishra, state BJP president VD Sharma and state president of Congress Kamal Nath also expressed condolences over the incident. In late development, Oon police station in Khargone registered a case of culpable homicide (Section 304 of IPC) against bus driver Sunil Rathore, conductor Santosh Barche and bus owner Pravin Soni for overloading the vehicle, an official communication said. Besides overloading, the bus was over speeding, despite having passengers beyond the regulated capacity for a 35-seater bus, it said. T