Palakkad, Oct 7 (PTI) Kerala police on Friday said they have recorded the arrest of the driver of the bus that met with an accident, killing nine and injuring 40 others.

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Police have recorded the arrest of Jojo Pathrose, who was detained from Kollam district on Thursday. The mishap happened the day before.

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"A case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including section 304, 337 and 338 have been registered against him. He will be produced before court soon," a senior police official told PTI.

Section 304 IPC deals with punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The other sections deal with rash and negligent acts, endangering lives of others.

Meanwhile, a purported video of the driver standing up and driving while dancing to a song played in the bus has now gone viral. The video which was telecast by many television channels claims it was an old video of Pathrose driving dangerously.

"We are yet to verify the video. In our preliminary examination, it seems like it was him," the official said.

Nine people, including five students were killed and over 40 were injured after the private bus hit a government-run KSRTC bus from behind in Kerala's Palakkad district.

State Revenue Minister K Rajan said the next Cabinet meeting would take a decision on the compensation to be given to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident.

At the same time, State Transport Commissioner S Sreejith told the Kerala High Court that the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) had sent alert to the owners phone about speeding of the bus.

The Kerala State Road Transport Department has initiated steps to hand over the insurance amount of Rs 10 lakh each to the three passengers who died.

"An interim assistance of Rs 2 lakh will be handed over to the families on Monday", KSRTC said, adding that the rest of the amount will be given after completing due procedures.

The State Education Department had directed all schools to strictly follow its earlier directions to avoid travel at night during excursions.

"The department had issued directions not to travel between 9 PM and 6 AM. Detailed instructions were given in the order issued on March 2, 2020 including the usage of vehicles from the tour operators affiliated with the State Tourism Department. The order also fixes responsibility of the trips on the respective institutional heads," Minister V Sivankutty had said.

The private vehicle had started from the Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School in Ernakulam on Wednesday with 42 students and five teachers.

The errant bus driver, who had allegedly escaped from a hospital after receiving first aid, was later detained by police.

The Transport Commissioner has said the bus was blacklisted five times for violating various motor vehicle rules in the past.

The KSRTC bus was going from Kottarakkara in Kerala to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and had 81 passengers.

(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)