A senior official claimed that a mass cremation was held on Sunday for 24 out of the 25 victims who died after a private bus caught fire in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district.
An official earlier in the day stated the body of one of the fatalities would be turned over to the family for burial.
“Because the majority of the victims were burnt beyond recognition after the bus caught fire in the early hours of Saturday, efforts were made to persuade their relatives to mass cremation of the bodies rather than DNA analysis”, the official added.
According to the sources, DNA testing is a lengthy procedure that can take days to determine the identity of the deceased.
On Saturday, 24 bodies were cremated in bulk at Vaikunth Dham Hindu Smashan Bhoomi in Buldhana.
Relatives of the dead, as well as Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan, attended the cremation and paid homage to the departed souls.
Prior, police stated, “The 25 passengers were charred to death as the private bus they were traveling in caught fire after hitting a divider on the Nagpur-Mumbai ‘Samruddhi Expressway’ in eastern Maharashtra’s Buldhana district at around 1.30 am on Saturday”.
Eleven male and fourteen female passengers were killed. Wardha had ten casualties, Pune had seven, Nagpur had four, while Yavatmal and Washim had two apiece.
The driver and `cleaner’ (driver’s assistant) were among the eight people who survived the tragic collision.
On Saturday, a charge for negligent driving was filed against the bus driver, with police claiming that prima facie, he dozed off and lost control of the vehicle.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has ordered an investigation into the accident and given a Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia assistance to the families of each deceased.
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