2 weeks Ago By Mihir Tanksale
1 2 3 Pune: Vyoma Graphics owner Nitin Shah on Friday categorically denied the allegation that driver Janardhan Humbardikar , who is accused of setting the company's staff bus ablaze, did not receive enough salary/bonus as other staffers did. "There are no pending dues payable by the company to the driver. He was receiving salary on time," Shah said.
Pimpri Chinchwad's deputy commissioner of police Vishal Gaikwad said, "Our investigation is focussed, among other things, on establishing how the driver managed to take benzene chemical out of the company. We are also verifying statements recorded by the company owner and the store manager." A Hinjewadi police team on Friday recovered CCTV footage from the company, which showed some person's suspicious movements near the facility on March 18, where the chemical was stored.
"We are verifying the footage to ascertain if this person is Humbardikar," inspector Hrushikesh Ghadge, investigating the case, told TOI. Police also recorded statements of the employees there. Four employees of the firm died in the blaze, while six others were hospitalised with severe burns after Humbardikar allegedly used highly inflammable benzene to set off a fire in the staff bus driver's cabin around 7.
30am on Wednesday. Prior to this, he picked up 13 employees from Warje to go to the company at Hinjewadi as per routine. On Thursday, Pimpri Chinchwad police cited investigations and claimed that the blaze was not an accident but a pre-planned act of murder by the driver, and the latter admitted to committing the act.
Humbardikar, who sustained burns to his leg, is under treatment at Ruby Hall Clinic and will be arrested upon being discharged from the hospital. Police also visited driver Humbardikar's house at Warje. "On the day of the incident, we found a matchbox and pieces of cloths in the staff bus.
This indicates the driver's intention," senior inspector Kanhaiyya Thorat said. Inspector Ghadge said, "We questioned the company owner, Nitin Shah, about the allegations by the driver regarding pending salary and alleged arguments with the other employees in the company. It was revealed that the driver was receiving his salary on time, but he had issues with some of his colleagues.
" The officer said one of the company employees stated in the FIR that ‘Janardan Mama', as Humbardikar was referred to, was weird by nature. He often argued with company employees over petty reasons. "The employee stated that a day before the incident, he heard Humbardikar saying in Marathi, ‘hey sagle lay bhari zale ahet.
Hyanchyakde baghtoch. Ek ekachi vaat lavto (all of them have become extra smart. I will teach them a lesson.
I will destroy them all)'," Ghadge said. Police have also recorded the statements of survivors. According to the FIR, one of the survivors told police that the driver suddenly stopped the bus after crossing phase-I circle at Hinjewadi.
He bent down and opened the driver's cabin and locked it again. The entire bus was then filled with a pungent smell. After driving some distance, the employees saw fire break out under the right leg of the driver.
The latter jumped out of the bus, and within a few seconds, they noticed an explosion near the driver's seat, and fire spread in the entire bus. The burning bus halted after rolling some distance without the driver. Some of the employees managed to open the door and jumped out.
Four of their colleagues were charred to death, the FIR stated..
