The private bus was carrying double the number of passengers than the bus capacity and permissible limits, the police said, even as the owner claimed all rules were followed.

Guddu Jaiswal, director of Chintamani Travels Pvt Ltd, which owns the private bus which caught fire after the head-on collision, claimed, “Early morning I got a call from the bus conductor, he was restless and kept on repeating that there is an accident, a mishap and a big one. He said that the bus halted by the roadside in Nasik for dropping passengers and he himself went to wake up those who were supposed to get off at that point. At that very moment, the collision took place hence, he himself is clueless about it.”