Exclusive: Twist in Kurnool bus fire, Andhra Police now hunt for ‘third driver’

“When Shiva Shankar met with the accident, the bike fell near the divider. Shankar hit his head on the divider and died on the spot, and the pillion, Yerri Swamy, fell onto the divider,” K Praveen, the Kurnool DIG, told The Indian Express. Yerri Swamy survived because the grass on the divider cushioned his fall.

According to the police, CCTV footage from a nearby petrol pump shows 14 vehicles passing the accident site. “One of the buses dragged the motorbike to the middle of the road and callously left it there. The Kaveri Travels bus — the 15th vehicle to pass — hit the bike and dragged it for 300 meters before the bike’s fuel tank burst into flames,” DIG Praveen said.

So far, police have booked two people — bus driver M. Lakshmaiah and owner Vemuri Vinod Kumar. The second driver, Shiva Narayana, who helped rescue passengers trapped in the blaze, has not been booked.

Lakshmaiah was remanded to judicial custody Wednesday. The DIG said the police discovered the involvement of another driver after obtaining dashboard footage from another bus that had passed the spot.

“We realised the bike was dragged to the middle of the road by another bus because the dashboard footage shows Shiva Shankar’s bike had fallen near the divider, not in the middle of the road,” DIG Praveen explained.

Had the driver of the other bus, which accidentally dragged the bike, stopped to move to the side of the road, the fatal accident could have been prevented, the officer said.

“We are yet to ascertain who this driver was. The dashboard visuals show another bus narrowly escaped the bike and did nothing about it,” DIG Praveen added.