Conductor of bus that caught fire arrested

Lucknow: Mohanlalganj police arrested a conductor of the ill-fated bus that caught fire in Lucknow on May 15, claiming lives of five passengers from Bihar, including two children.The conductor has been identified as Mahesh Singh, 52, a resident of Motihari, , Bihar. Mahesh was apprehended near Harikanshgarhi underpass and was sent to judicial custody. On May 18, the Mohanlalganj police arrested Shankar Yadav, the bus driver, from Bihar.The tragic incident occurred on May 14, when the double-decker private bus travelling from Bihar's Begusarai to Delhi caught fire near the Harikanshgarhi underpass in the Kisan Path area of Lucknow at around 5 pm. The blaze claimed the lives of two children, including Devraj, 4 and Sakshi Kumari, 2, who were burned to death on the spot. Three other passengers, including Lakhi Devi, 60 and Soni Kumari, 26, from Samastipur district and an unidentified individual, also died in the incident. Nearly 100 passengers were on board at the time and many lost all their belongings in the fire.Following the incident, an FIR was registered under sections 181/105/125(a)/125(b)/324(4) of the BNS after both the driver and conductor fled the scene. According to the complainant, Rambalak, a passenger on the bus, the fire was caused due to the negligence of the bus driver, conductor and owner.