DNA

• Death tally up to 56 this year

Mumbai, Dec 11 (mb): A BEST bus ran over a 60-year-old man near Kurla bus depot on Sunday night, bringing the death toll of people mowed down by a vehicle of the transport utility to 56 this year.

Abdul Qadar, a local  who used to run errands for shopkeepers in the neighbourhood, was crossing the street around 10.30 pm when the speeding bus (Route no 22) hit him.

Qadar was rushed to Sion Hospital but was declared dead on admission. Enraged by the incident, pedestrians and shopkeepers rushed to the spot and pelted stones at the bus after asking passengers to alight.

“We rushed to the spot as soon as we got to know that a mob was becoming unruly. We dispersed the crowd and arrested the driver,” said a Kurla police station official.

The driver of the bus, Santosh Mane, 37, was arrested on charges of rash and negligent driving. He was produced in the Kurla metropolitan magistrates’ court and was granted bail for Rs3,000.

The BEST administration, alarmed by the rising accidents involving drivers, had recently announced that it would not pay the bail amount on their behalf. Consequently, Mane on Monday ended up coughing up his own bail, said police officials.