Bihar bus accident: How the official death toll came down from 27 to zero

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mourned the tragedy of Bihar's Motihari bus accident and expressed condolences to the victims.

The Bihar bus tragedy that was reported and confirmed by the state government to have claimed more than two dozen lives has turned out to be a major goof-up on the part of the authorities. A day after confirming 27 deaths in the accident, the Bihar Disaster Management Minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav backtracked on Friday, saying there were no deaths in the accident.

"Yes, I said 27 people have died. It was based on info from local sources, but I also said that only final report will be considered," Yadav told ANI.

The mix-up over the death toll arose from the confusion over the number of passengers travelling in the bus that overturned and caught fire at NH-28 in Bihar's East Champaran district. The private AC bus was on its way to Delhi from Muzzafarpur in Bihar.

Earlier reports had indicated that a total of 32 passengers were travelling in the private bus. But, now it has emerged that only 13 passengers, besides the driver and a helper, were inside the bus when the accident took place.

"A total of 32 passengers had booked their seats in the private bus, out of whom only 13 had boarded at Muzaffarpur and the remaining were likely to catch the vehicle at Gopalganj," PTI cited regional news channel reports.

Following the accident, the passengers had managed to come out of the bus by smashing the window panes. The injured are being treated at nearby hospitals. 

The NDRF, SDRF and FSL teams reached the accident site on Thursday evening. “After a thorough search by NDRF, SDRF and FSL teams, no body or remains of any body were found. We are relieved there is no casualty,” disaster management principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit told The Indian Express on Friday.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mourned the tragedy and expressed condolences for the victims. 

"I am pained by the irony..... Here we have gathered to launch schemes related to transport which includes road safety and we receive the news of the tragic mishap. It is not known how many people have died," Kumar had said.