Pune police arrests bus driver hours after seven were killed in road accident

Pune: The police have arrested the driver of the water tanker which collided with a mini-bus on Pune-Ahmednagar road on Sunday, killing seven persons. [caption id=“attachment_1558391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. AFP[/caption] All the deceased, including two women, were software professionals working with different IT firms in the city senior police inspector Sarjerao Patil said on Monday. On Sunday evening, six persons died on the spot and seven others were injured when the private mini bus in which the were travelling collided with the water tanker near Lonikan village, about 40 kms from here. One of the injured persons succumbed later at a hospital on Sunday night, Patil said. The victims were returning from a friend’s wedding in Ahmednagar district. Patil said when the mini-bus reached near Lonikand the water tanker coming from the opposite direction veered of the road. It then rammed into the road divider, jumped on the other side of the road and collided with the mini-bus. “It seems that the water tanker was being driven in rash and negligent manner. The tanker driver apparently los control over the wheels following which the vehicle collide with the bus,” he said. The tanker also hit a car which was behind the bus, he said. The tanker driver, Krushna Kitarwad (22), wa arrested in the early hours on Monday, Patil said. Kitarwad has been booked under IPC sections pertainin to rash and negligent driving and also under section 304 par II, for offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under which the imprisonment may extend up to 10 years. He has also been booked under relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act, the police officer said. Sameer Gaikwad, one of the bus passengers who sustained minor injuries in the accident, said, “We all are shocked. We are yet to come to terms with the tragedy.”