10 December,2024 10:37 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Ashif Hussain
A quick intervention a local lawyer and later the police saved the BEST bus driver who was allegedly assaulted by an angry mob after the electric vehicle driven by him ran amok and killed seven people and injured at least 42 on a busy road in Kurla on Monday night.
Ashif Hussain, 30, a resident of the area near the accident site on S.G. Barve Road, was among the first to respond following the Kurla BEST bus crash.
"I was at home when I heard a loud noise. I rushed outside and saw two policemen lying injured in a police vehicle," Hussain told PTI on Tuesday.
Hussain opened the door of the damaged vehicle and rushed the injured cops to a nearby hospital. Upon returning, he, along with friends, rescued three others trapped under the police SUV.
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Hussain said he noticed a mob attacking the bus driver.
"I intervened, pleading with people to stop hitting the driver. I took a few blows in the process, but with the help of the police, we managed to get the driver to safety," he said, according to the PTI.
He said the bus conductor hid himself in a nearby dentist's clinic to escape the mob's fury. Hussain provided him with new clothes and escorted him on a motorbike to the Kurla police station.
"The mob was furious. Had we not arrived in time, and had local residents not helped us, the driver and conductor would not have been spared by the angry people," a senior police official said.
The driver, Sanjay More (54) was later arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other provisions under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
The e-bus, operated by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, rammed into pedestrians and vehicles at around 9.30 pm on Monday in Kurla (West), leaving behind a trail of death and destruction on the congested street.
According to police, More lacked the experience of driving EVs.
He had undergone only a ten-day training for driving electric buses, police said.
Police on Tuesday told a court that they need to probe if More had committed the act "deliberately" and used the vehicle as a "weapon", as per the PTI.
(with PTI inputs)
