Pune rampage: Relatives of victims blame authorities for delayed action

"What were the authorities and the police doing when the bus was going on a rampage killing people? How can it take an hour for the entire machinery to get things under control?,” asked a fuming Sonali Mule, who lost her brother-in-law in the Wednesday morning mishaps.

The MSRTC and police authorities came under heavy criticism from the relatives of the dead when the bodies went to Sassoon General Hospital for post-mortem. Talks of staging a rasta roko were on. But intervention of police officials prevented the situation from becoming worse. 

According to the relatives, the MSRTC authorities and police officials were slow in their approach in controlling the situation and taking the driver Santosh Mane under custody.

“Were the workers, securitymen and the police officials asleep when he just started the bus and drove away,” asked Zabin Sheikh, who lost her friend, Pooja Patil (19) in the mishap. Pooja, a second year dental student of Bharatiya Vidyapeeth was travelling to college along with her father. While Pooja lost her life, her father Bhaurao Patil is critical at Sassoon Hospital.

What irked the aggrieved families, relatives and friends most was when the MSRTC authorities tagged the driver as mentally ill. “This is just a ploy by the MSRTC authorities to shy away from the responsibility. The authorities cannot get away from their responsibility by tagging the accused as a psychopath. We want justice for the ones who lost their lives in the mishaps and demand strict action against them,” Shrutuji Ambekar, Pooja’s friend told DNA.

According to witnesses, if the authorities were more active in curbing the issue and taken things under control, then many lives could have been saved. Ravi (name changed), said, “Though the police were firing at the bus, no one played a proactive role in bringing things under control. If the bus would not have stuck near Sarasbaug, then things would have been worse.”