India News | Cluster Bus Rams into Cemetery Wall in Central Delhi, Damages Graves

New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) A cluster bus crashed into the wall of a cemetery in central Delhi's Khan Market area Saturday morning and damaged around 10 graves, police said.

Videos and pictures of the accident, widely circulated on social media, showed a major part of the bus inside the boundary of the cemetery.

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Police said the cluster bus was coming from Humayun Road and the driver lost control while taking a left turn and rammed the cemetery wall.

They said it was going for duty from the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium to Karampura for route number 408 and at the time, there were only three people on board – the driver conductor and the marshal.

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The driver has been identified as Sanjay Kumar (29). A case under section 279 (rash driving) has been registered and further investigation was carried out, police said.

Cluster buses are monitored and managed by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS). Quoting the driver, a DIMTS official said around 6.36 am, while negotiating the roundabout near Hotel Taj Mann Sing after Khan Market, the bus crashed into the cemetery wall while attempting to avoid collision with a car coming from the right side at very high speed. The speed of the bus at that time was 30 kilometres per hour.

Eugene Ratnam, secretary of the Delhi Cemeteries Committee, said the accident damaged 10-12 graves.

"There are two caretakers who live with their families inside the premises. They live on opposite sides of the cemetery. They heard a loud noise and saw the bus inside the cemetery after tearing down a portion of the wall. They immediately informed us about the incident," he said.

"Some families have come to check the damage to the graves," Ratnam said, adding the committee will help clean the cemetery and repair the graves.

Last month, a DTC bus hit a car before ramming into a subway crossing in west Delhi's Naraina area. Three people -- the driver, conductor and the marshal deployed on the bus -- were injured in that accident.

The bus was going towards the Naraina depot after dropping all the passengers at the stop. The driver later told the police that the braking system of the bus had failed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)