‘Well-planned, act of sabotage’: Police say driver set bus on fire

“Our probe also found that the driver had disputes with some company employees. Meanwhile, forensic and other evidence pointed towards his role. After jumping out of the vehicle, the driver had lost consciousness. After he came back to his senses in hospital, we questioned him and he confessed to the crime. This was a pre-planned and cold-blooded act of revenge by the driver,” Gaikwad added.

The incident took place around 7.45 am on Wednesday when the tempo traveller, which picked up employees of Vyoma Graphics from Kothrud and Warje, was on its way to the printing press of the company in Phase 2 of Hinjewadi IT Park for their shift, which was set to start around 8 am. When the bus crossed Wipro Circle in Phase I, fire was noticed under the driver’s seat. The driver and some of the passengers managed to jump out.

With no one behind the wheel, the minibus moved haphazardly for some distance on the road sloping downward before ramming into a roadside curb and coming to a halt. In the meantime, the fire spread rapidly. The four employees, who could not escape, were charred to death.

Police said Hambardikar, who hails from Goa, has been working with the company for the last over 12 years. “He has not been formally arrested but is in our custody till the time his medical treatment is on. He will be arrested after his treatment is over. He has been charged with murder under BNS Section 103,” Gaikwad said.

Speaking about the crucial leads that pointed to sabotage, a senior police officer said, “We found that matchstick was used. We have found the match box. Hambardikar allegedly purchased it from near his house. We found the use of flammable benzene and we also found rags of cloth under the driver’s seat. Hambardikar routinely took discarded rags of cloth from the company, which he used to clean the vehicle. He had kept a large number of these rags under the driver’s seat. He allegedly got benzene from the company in a bottle the day before the incident. He allegedly poured the benzene on the cloth rags and lit the matchstick. He carefully chose the location — on a downward gradient of the road. After lighting the matchstick and rags, an intense fire started and he jumped out of the minibus.”

The officer further said, “We found the back door of the tempo traveller was not opened because of which the four victims could not come out. We are investigating whether the driver tampered with the door too. We are yet to question the driver in detail as he is still under treatment in the ICU for his injuries. We briefly questioned him during which he confessed to the crime.”

Asked why would the driver set the bus on fire, Gaikwad said, “We found that Hambardikar had been nursing grudges against some employees due to various reasons. We are verifying these reasons. Apparently, he was not being treated properly, for example he was allegedly not allowed to eat tiffin on some occasions. He was also allegedly being asked to do the tasks of a labourer. He was also not given Diwali bonus last year. All this are being verified. These disputes were with his supervisors, other staffers. So the primary probe points to this being an act of revenge and that he intended to murder people.”

The victims were identified as helper Gurudas Khandu Lokare (42), lamination machine operator Shankar Kondiba Shinde (63), cutting machine operator Subhash Suresh Bhosale (44) and offset printing machine operator Rajan Siddharth Chavan (42). Two of the injured are currently undergoing treatment for severe burns, a police officer said. The condition of the other eight injured are stable.

Fire Brigade officers had told The Indian Express they believed the deceased might have tried to open the back door but were not successful. The bodies of the four were found lying on one another.

On Wednesday, Regional Transport Officer Sandesh Chavan, who inspected the burnt vehicle, told The Indian Express he initially suspected short-circuit in the wiring under the driver’s seat, which needed to be investigated.

On Thursday, after it emerged that the driver allegedly started the fire, Chavan said, “The way the fire grew and spread rapidly created doubts in my mind. From my past experience I can say that a fire cannot spread so quickly from a short-circuit. There has to be some other angle to it. While the wires under the seat were in a tattered state, the wires on the upper portion of the bus were intact.”

DCP Gaikwad said, “Generally in such cases, passengers have a chance to escape. The intensity of the fire and the way it turned into an inferno made us suspicious. We suspected if any inflammable items fanned it, especially petrol or diesel, which drivers are known to keep in vehicles.”

“The driver wasn’t a very friendly person. He would get angry easily. But I cannot imagine he would go this far as his brother-in-law Vishwas Khanvilkar too was on the bus. I suspect he was upset over some family issue because of which he might have taken this step,” Pradip Raut, one of the survivors, said.

With inputs from Shubham Kurale