Pune: Driver sent to police custody

A local court on Thursday remanded in police custody the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) driver who went berserk with a vehicle crushing nine people and injuring 27 others on Wednesday morning in the streets of Pune.

The court sent the 39-year-old mentally duisturbed driver, Santosh Maruti Mane, to police custody till Feb 3, reports said.

Pune woke up to a horrifying sight on Wednesday morning when the bus driver rammed his bus around Pune city and killed people one after another.

At least 27 people were injured and some 40 vehicles were wrecked during the 45 minute long madness.

"He just went berserk. He was in such a dangerous kind of mood," city police commissioner Meeran Borwanker told reporters.

Mane, who reportedly told a team of doctors examining hims that he has been undergoing psychiatric treatment, was not drunk, police sources said.

Police attempted to drive the bus to a halt by firing shots at its tyres after chasing it down the wrong side of the road during the morning rush-hour chaos.

However, it was a college student, Sharif Ibrahim Kutty, who eventually managed to climb on board the bus and overpower Mane.

"I saw a bus approach a woman and a young child and it just crushed her and then kept going, dragging her with it," Kutty said.

"I got on my bike and I started chasing him. The police fired three rounds, but in vain. At a particular stage near a theatre, he lost control of the bus," he said.

According to reports, the wife and doctor of the driver have said that he was "overstressed and suffering from serious mental illness" for the last two years.

MSRTC managing director Deepak Kapoor told a national daily that Mane had been involved in five accidents in 11 years of service, but the incidents were "minor" and there were no fatalities.

According to police sources, Mane was supposed to drive a Pune-Waduste bus from the Swargate depot at 10.15 am.

At around 8 am, however, he climbed into a parked Pune-Satara bus, started it with a master key, and drove out of the depot throttling down Shankar Sheth Road on the wrong side.

A bystander called police control room after seeing the bus hit a vehicle near Hotel Seven Loves, and soon, two officers on a bike were on Mane´s tail.

Mane kept charging down busy city roads at very high speeds, driving frequently on the wrong side for nearly 20 km and ignoring several shots fired by the police.

He was finally forced to slow down after two cars that he hit on Sinhagad Road near Sarasbaug, locked his way, witnesses said.