NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Who was driving rashly - Pilot or bus driver?

Kamla Bora in Jaipur

Who was driving rashly - senior Congress leader Rajesh Pilot or the Rajasthan Roadways bus driver?

After Pilot and his security guard were killed in a road accident on Sunday, the police arrested bus driver Ram Dhan Meena and booked him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for rash and negligent driving. However, Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation chairman V N Bahadur defended the driver, claiming Pilot's vehicle rammed into the bus.

Bahadur, a senior Indian Administrative Service officer, has been quoted as saying that the bus driver was not at fault. The bus was moving slowly and the driver had even tried avoiding the jeep from the opposite direction, he claimed.

However, District Superintendent of Police Amarjeet Singh said in Dausa that it was clearly a case of negligent driving by the bus driver. He was overtaking a tanker, ignoring Pilot's jeep, he said. The manner in which the jeep had been smashed indicated that the bus driver was rash and negligent, he argued.

The police have begun investigations and the forensic science laboratory of the state police will try and reconstruct events leading to the accident.

There were five occupants in the jeep. While Pilot and his security guard Hari Singh were killed, the others, including Congress legislator from Sikrai, Mahendra Meena, are being treated for injuries at the Sawai Man Singh Hospital, here.

The injured are also not in a condition to say what actually happened. They told visitors that they were drowsy when the accident occurred. ''There was a big thud and I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in hospital,'' jeep owner Banwari Lal, who was in the back seat.

However, everybody concedes that Pilot used to drive very fast. That day, he was trying to catch a flight from Sanganer airport in Jaipur to Delhi.

The bus driver has been remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. No bail application was moved. Since the driver has spent more than 24 hours in a lockup he has been suspended from the job by the roadways, which is conducting its own inquiry.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report