A groom-to-be, a man returning from a fun trip: Two killed as bus overturns in Central Delhi’s Karol Bagh

Officers said that when a police team reached the spot, passengers were crying for help from inside the bus. A rescue operation was launched, police said, adding that a JCB machine passing through the area was stopped and used to lift and stabilise the vehicle with the help of roadside cement blocks. Police personnel, assisted by local residents, pulled trapped passengers out of the vehicle.

Critically injured victims were sent to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, and others were taken to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College. Two of them succumbed to their injuries at RML Hospital, police said.

At the RML’s mortuary later in the day, Mahesh’s father Ramesh was spotted consoling Mahesh’s grieving mother. Mahesh was their younger son and they were busy preparing for his wedding slated for April.

“He took a job at a courier company in Bilaspur (Rajasthan) about a year ago. The wedding was scheduled for April 20,” Ramesh said. He was coming home for the wedding. His friend Pradeep was with him, the family said.

“Both of us were sleeping, side by side. A couple of our friends were also there. I woke up once only to find out that the bus was moving very fast. I asked the driver to slow down, but he said he was already running late,” Pradeep said.

Around 1 am, Pradeep recalled, he woke as he felt a jolt. Before he could understand what happened, it started to overturn, he said.

“I got pushed out of the window of the bus, and injured my knee. But Mahesh came under it. His head was out, but the weight of the bus was on his chest,” recalls Pradeep, still shaken.

Sixty-year-old rickshaw-puller Murari, an eyewitness, was sleeping on the pavement near the site of the accident. He said that the bus hit a wall and a pole before overturning. “The bus was coming from Dhaula Kuan side. It first hit the wall of a nearby park, then rammed into a pole, and then flipped,” he said.

Fahim, a relative of Alam, said the deceased owned a clothing business in Bijnor, and had come to Delhi to celebrate Eid. “Four days ago, he decided to go on a trip to Jaipur with his cousin. They boarded the bus to return to Delhi. His wife is pregnant and his younger brother is in college,” said Fahim.

The bus driver, identified as Pankaj Kumar (26), a resident of Rajasthan’s Alwar, has been detained and is currently receiving treatment. A case has been registered against him under BNS Section 281 for rash or negligent driving and endangering people’s lives.