Pune: In an incident eerily similar to the Santosh Mane incident of 2012, a PMT (Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd) bus driver on Sunday (October 22), allegedly under the influence of alcohol, drove the vehicle in reverse gear, damaging other vehicles and causing a major scare at the Vetal Baba Chowk in Pune.
The video shows the bus carrying 50 people, screaming for help, even as the bus driver drives the vehicle in reverse gear. People on the road also shout and urge the driver not to do such a thing, but in vain.
A youth named Krishna Jadhav reportedly broke the glass panel of the bus and tried to stop the vehicle by getting the driver, according to local media reports.
The driver, who was allegedly drunk, has been identified as Nilesh Sawant.
NCP leader Supriya Sule shares video
NCP leader Supriya Sule took to X and shared a news clip of the incident. "There is a need for the Municipal Commissioner and Pune Police Commissioner to thoroughly investigate the entire matter and take strict action against the guilty person," said Sule in her post.
Santosh Mane case
On January 25, 2012, Santosh Mane had hijacked a bus and mowed down nine people. In 2013, a sessions court awarded the death penalty to Mane and called his crime “rarest of the rare”.
In September 2014, the Bombay High Court upheld the death penalty and rejected the argument by the defence that Mane should be acquitted of the murder charges, saying that he had committed the crime as he was “mentally unsound”. However, the Supreme Court in 2019, commuted the death sentence awarded to Santosh Mane into life imprisonment.
