AP CID sleuths pick up four workers of Jabbar Travels

Sleuths of Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested four workers of Jabbar Travels at the travel firm’s office in Kalasipalya here on Thursday, in connection with the Mahabubnagar bus inferno which claimed 45 lives more than two months ago. 

But the firm’s co-owner could not be arrested as he was “out of town”. The total number of people arrested in the case so far has gone up to six. A team of CID officers, led by DySP Muralidhar, picked up Shabbir, Akram, Amanulla Shareef and Mohammad Rafeeq. Later, they were formally arrested and taken to Hyderabad. 

‘Out of town’"

Police said they could not arrest Jameel Jabbar, the co-owner of the firm who is the prime suspect in the case, as he was out of town. The sleuths then directed the Jabbar Travels management to send Jameel to the CID office, Hyderabad before Friday. 

The AP police had registered a case and started investigation. The case was later handed over to the CID for further inquiry. 

Shakeel Jabbar, the owner of the firm and Jameel’s brother, and bus driver Feroze were arrested at Kothakota in Mahabubnagar district immediately after the accident. The former was, however, granted bail by a local court. He was released from the sub jail at Nagarkurnool in Mahabubnagar district after he furnished two sureties of local residents attested by the tahsildar. 

‘Not absconding’

Shakeel insisted that Jameel was not absconding. “It is claimed that my brother Jameel is absconding. He is neither absconding nor has he fled after seeing the police. He was not in Bangalore, otherwise police would have picked him up,” Shakeel said. 

Forty-five passengers were burnt alive in the Bangalore-Hyderabad Volvo bus operated by Jabbar Travels when it hit a culvert and burst into flames in the early hours of October 30, 2013. 

Another passenger succumbed to injuries later.