A bus driver in India has received a 190-year jail sentence – 10 years for each of the 19 passengers who were burnt alive in a May 2015 road accident.
Mohammad Shamshuddin, 47, was convicted by a court in the Panna district of India's central Madhya Pradesh state on Friday.
The driver has been convicted for 190 years, 10 years each for the killings. We are relieved with the judgment
Jitendra Singh Bains,
prosecutor
Shamshuddin was driving a bus carrying 65 passengers when it fell off a bridge and plunged into a dry canal below.
The bus immediately caught fire, killing 19 passengers and injuring more than a dozen people.
In pictures: India's road safety crisis
During the investigation, it was found that Shamshuddin was driving recklessly and the vehicle's emergency exits had been illegally modified. The emergency exit was blocked with iron rods and an extra seat had been mounted, trapping people on the burning bus.
Some victims were so badly burnt that their bodies were beyond recognition.
Judge RP Sonkar said Shamshuddin was guilty of manslaughter. The prosecution claimed that Shamshuddin's punishment was not just exceptional but the first of its kind in a country where road deaths are high but convictions are rare, hovering at between 5 to 10 per cent.
Indian courts generally avoid sentencing people on separate counts; jail terms are handed down concurrently.
“The postmortem and DNA confirmed 19 bodies and so the 19 deaths were counted. The driver has been convicted for 190 years, 10 years each for the killings. We are relieved with the judgment,” public prosecutor Jitendra Singh Bains told The National.
“The owner was also convicted of negligence and murder, for 10 years. He had sealed the exit gate with a rod and passengers could not escape because of that,” Mr Bains said.
Road safety in focus
The owner of the bus, Gyandendra Pandey, was also tried on charges of culpable homicide and death owing to negligence under India's Motor Vehicle Act. He has been sentenced to 10 years' hard labour.
But Mr Pandey’s lawyer, JK Rao, described the ruling as “third class” and said it would be challenged in a higher court.
“Both of them have been convicted. The punishment is consecutive for the driver but this is a third-class judgment,” Mr Rao told The National.
“We have already filed an appeal at the high court … they argued that the killings were without intention but with the knowledge," he said, referring to the accusation that the bus driver knew the vehicle was unsafe.
"But there is no evidence to prove that," Mr Rao said. "My clients had no mala fide intentions to commit manslaughter."
India has some of the deadliest roads in the world.
Each year tens of thousands of people die in accidents owing to negligence, faulty road design, lax safety laws and corruption. Road crashes are one of the biggest causes of unnatural death in the country.
At least 133,715 people were killed in road accidents in 2020, according to the latest figures released by the National Crimes Records Bureau.
About 79,000 accidents were blamed on negligent driving, but overall conviction rates are low.
Four-day collections of TOH
Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
Total 1.19bn (59.15m)
(Figures in millions, approximate)
The specs
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Transmission: 6-speed automatic
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
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Price: On request
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
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%3Cp%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%201.9km%20King%20Salman%20Boulevard%2C%20a%20Parisian%20Champs-Elysees-inspired%20avenue%2C%20is%20scheduled%20for%20completion%20in%202028%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20Royal%20Diriyah%20Opera%20House%20is%20expected%20to%20be%20completed%20in%20four%20years%3Cbr%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%20first%20of%2042%20hotels%2C%20the%20Bab%20Samhan%20hotel%2C%20will%20open%20in%20the%20first%20quarter%20of%202024%3Cbr%3E-%20On%20completion%20in%202030%2C%20the%20Diriyah%20project%20is%20forecast%20to%20accommodate%20more%20than%20100%2C000%20people%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20%2463.2%20billion%20Diriyah%20project%20will%20contribute%20%247.2%20billion%20to%20the%20kingdom%E2%80%99s%20GDP%3Cbr%3E-%20It%20will%20create%20more%20than%20178%2C000%20jobs%20and%20aims%20to%20attract%20more%20than%2050%20million%20visits%20a%20year%3Cbr%3E-%20About%202%2C000%20people%20work%20for%20the%20Diriyah%20Company%2C%20with%20more%20than%2086%20per%20cent%20being%20Saudi%20citizens%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
